NASA’s alternative universe

From the “What the Heck Was He Thinking?” Dept.: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recently told Al Jazeera his “foremost” mission from President Obama is to “find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations, to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering.” Curious. Lots of Americans probably assumed NASA is about space exploration — maybe a mission to Mars. Nope. It’s Muslim outreach, Muslim validation. Fox News’ Brit Hume said Bolden’s revelation sounded like what you say when your agency is broke and needs outside partners. Maybe that’s it. And maybe, too, Bolden’s remarks were playing to the Al Jazeera audience. But for the naysayers among us, there’s a sneaking feeling the comments are part of Team Obama’s “we are the world” strategy, where mutual interest trumps all things and everyone gets a juice box after the game — a far cry from when President Kennedy started a full-court press to beat the Russians to the moon.

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