HUNTSVILLE, AL—
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle disagrees with the President's 2011 Budget Proposal. He said he dislikes how it would take NASA employees in a new direction ... essentially, away from the moon.Friday, the Mayor launched a task force to save NASA's lunar mission "Constellation." At the Madison County Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Battle dubbed his task force the "Second to None Initiative."
He said he got the idea for the name from the State of the Union Address, when President Obama said the U.S. should be second to none.
"We should be second to none in space exploration. We should be second to none in science and technology," Mayor Battle said.
He said Obama's plan for NASA threatens that, so he selected 25 members from the public and private sector, from area universities, and even former NASA officials. They represent Boeing, UAHuntsville, Lockheed Martin and the Chamber of Commerce, among others. This group is taxed with saving funds that would send an astronaut to the moon ... and even beyond.
"We have the foremost intellectual pool in space and aeronautics that's ever been put together in the world sitting at NASA right now," Mayor Battle said. "For four years without a mission, without a job to do, that pool disperses. And, when that pool disperses, it can never come back together."
To lead the group, the Mayor appointed former U.S. Congressman Bud Cramer.
"If we pull the plug on the programs we're already well into, that we spent a lot of good tax payer money on, then we are not being smart about where we as a country are going, what we expect NASA to be all about," Cramer said.
He emphasized human space exploration is what's at stake here. Cramer said although Obama's plan increases NASA's budget over the next five years, it doesn't fund the right things.
"You can spend more money, but if you don't spend it in the right way, and you let the Chinese, the Indians, the Russians advance on us significantly, then we've taken a different place in the world, and NASA means something different than President Kennedy meant it to mean," Cramer explained.
Cramer spends the majority of his week in Washington. He said many legislators are confused and alarmed about the proposal.
"People on the hill were very concerned and trying to absorb, like, 'What, what, what is on your mind? How could you be proposing a budget like this?'" Cramer said, as he acted out the concerns of the people in Congress.
He said he's cautiously optimistic the House and Senate will vote down the President's plan for NASA.
Until then, he plans to lead the Second to None Initiative and keep Constellation on NASA's and Washington's agenda.
Cramer said the task force will probably meet twice a week. Their first meeting was last Saturday. He said the group's job is to help the delegation understand how ending Constellation would affect the Tennessee Valley.
