A Question of Priorities On The 9th Floor

The reason one request was honored and the other declined may have been due to lack of availablity on the date of the event, which is during a space shuttle mission, or other constraints on attendence rather than budget. One would imagine that the African American Pioneers in Aviation and Space might have specifically wanted one of the very few African American astronauts to attend, whereas the visited schools might have been accepting of any of the astronauts in the corps to attend...

Keith,

Thanks for bringing this to light. Certainly, it would've gone unnoticed by the general public. I know there are many factors that go into scheduling astronaut appearances, budget being one (and a rather big one). I do wonder, however, if the upcoming shuttle flight, currently scheduled to lift-off on Feb. 12, has anything to do with astronaut scheduling and tasking that would conflict with the proposed Feb. 14 date? Either way, thanks for bringing this to light.

yawn

The problem *appears* to me to be more related to conference funding issue affecting the Agency.
With that said, the astronaut office and the A suite have always and will always do exactly what it is that they want to do. That will never change, and it's independent of any policy related to the general public.

NASA Speaker's Bureau forbids a requester to discriminate on basses of "race, creed or color", so perhaps the request on behalf of the "African American Pioneers in Aviation and Space" requested a black astronaut, and was therefore declined due to regulations.

Discrimination - The appearance must not unlawfully segregate or unequally treat participants because of Race, Sex, Color, National Origin, Disability, Religion, Age, Sexual Orientation, or Status as a Parent.

It's more likely that we should all thank Senator Tom Coburn for this refusal -- I believe he sponsored the legislation limiting the total budget for NASA travel to 'conferences' that was reported by NASA Watch on Oct. 19th, 2008.

According to NASA Interim Directive 9312.1, 'Requirements Relating to Conference Attendance, Obligations and Expenditures,' any meeting intended "for consultation, education, awareness or discussion" must be considered a 'conference' for purposes of the travel budget limitation...

"Any school visit by an astronaut is of great value and can serve as a life-altering event."

Maybe some towns, Keith, but not here in West Mifflin, where I pay my school taxes.

Four years ago, I had done all of the legwork necessary to have Mike Fincke, an Emsworth native, visit the school the next time he came home. All that was needed was a request on school district letterhead. The school district couldn't be bothered, and everything fell through.

I completely understood why Billy Rose was interested in what it was like growing up in a steel town compared to Coalwood.
There wasn't, and still isn't, much difference at all.

Any school visit by an astronaut is of great value and can serve as a life-altering event.

I can't imagine why it would be "life-altering". C'mon. Get real here. Pretty cool, probably. "Life-altering", nah. "Great value" is arguable as well. I spend a lot of time in the schools working with kids on things having to do with space, and I know.

Editor's note: then you clearly haven't been paying attention.

Better things to worry about on the 9th floor than this, I think.

I would agree with several assessments that this was possibly declined because of severe limits on funding for FY09 conference funding. NASA is going to disappoint a lot of people unless the restrictions can be improved upon in the FY09 appropriations bill that might pass in the next month or so. If you don't like the restrictions, let Sen. Coburn know.

Editor's note: but it is OK for NASA Administrator and his CFO to fly an astronaut up to Washington specifically to go to their kid's school?

I couldn't agree more with the editor's note. People do what they want for whom they want. There are clearly 2 sets of rule here.