Video: Round Table Discussion on Obama’s New NASA Plan

RT‘s Peter Lavalle leads a discussion of President Obama’s proposed space policy with policy analyst John Logsdon, Space Frontier Foundation’s Thomas Andrew Olson, and space tourist Anousheh Ansari.

Lavalle is his typical, clueless self, declaring that NASA is backing away from human spaceflight. Logsdon tries to set him straight. Ansari likes the plan overall but criticizes it for not having a clear direction. Logsdon says that a mission statement and a sequence for exploration is in the works. In any event, there are only a few destinations to go.

Lavalle then states that China has decided to send humans to the moon, something the country haven’t committed to yet. He then asks whether private firms can compete with the Chinese, which Olsen and Logsdon point out isn’t even on the table. (The U.S. is trying to commercialize LEO.) China’s space program is focused on a steady, step-by-step process on low Earth orbit and isn’t really in competition with anyone.

Logsdon comments on U.S.-Chinese cooperation on human spaceflight. The U.S. and China had agreed to explore such collaboration during President Obama’s recent trip to Beijing. However, Logsdon says that plan has been put on the back burner because relations between the two countries are in a down cycle.