NASA Outreach Program 'Confirmed' Despite White House Denial, Rep Says

"The last thing we need to be doing now is spending precious space dollars ... on outreach to any religion," he said. "We need to spend money on human space exploration."

And Muslims have done nothing to further space exploration !



From Patriot post / Patriot Humor



Foxnews
Call it a failure to launch.

The White House is disavowing a plan to have NASA conduct outreach to Muslim countries, but a congressman who talked to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden about that plan last month said the initiative was very real until somebody slammed the brakes on it.

Rep. Pete Olson, ranking Republican on the Space and Aeronautics House Subcommittee, told FoxNews.com that Bolden described the outreach program as part of the administration's space plan during a conversation they had in June.

"He confirmed it to me," Olson said. The Texas Republican said he thinks the program existed until the "uproar" compelled the administration to rethink it.

Though Bolden mentioned the outreach months ago during a speech in February, it drew widespread attention after he described it as a "foremost" priority during an interview with Al Jazeera last month. The administration initially stood by the claim, but White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that Bolden misspoke and that the outreach is "not the task of NASA."

Olson said that to his knowledge no collaboration with Muslim countries actually took place. He said such a collaboration could raise concern about missile technology falling into the wrong hands. But at the same time, he said NASA doesn't have much classified information to share. He described the agency as a cash-strapped arm of the federal government in dire need of some TLC. His main concern with the outreach program was that it would divert badly needed money away from space exploration.

"The last thing we need to be doing now is spending precious space dollars ... on outreach to any religion," he said. "We need to spend money on human space exploration."