Texas Gov. Rick Perry, probably a Republican presidential candidate soon, noted the shuttle’s demise will cost Houston’s manned space flight headquarters alone some 4,000 jobs “forcing NASA away from its original purpose of space exploration and ignoring its groundbreaking past and enormous future potential.”
In his strongly-worded Thursday message, Perry added:
Forty-two years ago yesterday, America captured the world’s imagination by putting a man on the moon, highlighting an era of excellence in space exploration.
Unfortunately, with the final landing of the Shuttle Atlantis and no indication of plans for future missions, this administration has set a significantly different milestone by shutting down our nation’s legacy of leadership in human spaceflight and exploration, leaving American astronauts with no alternative but to hitchhike into space.
