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American Morning
Interview with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe
Aired January 14, 2004 - 07:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get to space right now. And for NASA scientists, it's all good. First, the incredible pictures of Mars coming from the Spirit rover. And today, President Bush calling for a base on the moon and a manned trip to the red planet eventually.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe with us now to talk about it in D.C.
Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Oh, thanks, Bill.
HEMMER: Nice to see you again.
O'KEEFE: A pleasure.
HEMMER: This is not chump change by any means. It's not bingo money. You're talking billions and billions of dollars here ultimately. Why is it worth it?
O'KEEFE: Well, again, it's not billions and billions in that context. We're talking about every taxpayer contributes, on average, about $0.15 a day, the price of a monthly cable television bill is what's being contributed by the average taxpayer. Less than one percent of the federal budget goes towards this, and that's not going to change.
What is different is the president's going to outline very specific exploration direction and objectives of what we should be targeting ourselves to, develop the technologies in order to achieve that. And that, in his estimation, and what he'll say today, is worth that.
HEMMER: When you talk about taxpayers, the polls show an even split right now in terms of support for this idea, 48 percent to 48 percent, depending on which poll you pay attention to. If that's the case, are you going to have a tough time selling this idea to Americans?
O'KEEFE: Oh, I think every year, every year there ought to be a spirited public debate over what the taxpayers' money, the people's money, is dedicated towards paying for. And that won't be any different this year. What's going to be different, I think, in that respect, is the new direction, a very specific kind of focus that the president's going to enunciate today.
HEMMER: Senator Bill Nelson you know well, out of Florida, has flown actually in a shuttle mission before. He says the five percent increase that will be recommended today from the White House will "not get us to the mono."
Is he right? Is this, in the end, going to be a much higher price tag?
O'KEEFE: Well, the budget comes out in two weeks and we believe that the resources necessary to carry out the objectives the president will enunciate today are going to be included in this budget and forecast in the future.
So let's wait to see the details before we make judgments about them.
HEMMER: And knowing the White House is making the speech today, how do the politics play into this? How important is it for NASA? How important it is it for the White House to give the impression and let Americans know that they are, let's say, big thinkers?
O'KEEFE: Well, it's, again, it's about exploration. It's in the human heart. It's what we're all about as human beings, to want to see what's on the other side of that hill, to explore and discover. And it's what got us out of the caves in the first place.
So in so much, you know, what this is about is not the politics of it, it's about human nature. And that's what the president is really focused on.
HEMMER: So then if you're able to get a permanent base on the moon at some point, let's say within five or 10 years from now, based on the proposal, maybe it's 2020, we'll see, what will that do for space exploration, knowing you have that outpost that is different from the already orbiting international space station?
O'KEEFE: Well, having the capacity to use the moon as a staging area to get to anywhere else in the solar system is a huge advantage. Really, the biggest challenge we always have is getting off this planet. And that's what poses the most aggressive technology challenge.
The moon is an easier kind of basing structure for that purpose. But we'll see. There's a lot of different alternatives we've got to explore and look at to consider how we do that using robotic capabilities, as well as human capabilities. And we want to make that possible.
HEMMER: Yes, and quickly, you mentioned the robot. Just in the short time I have here left, critics will say that robots can do the job that humans cannot, and they can do it cheaper and with greater safety and security.
Your response is what to that?
O'KEEFE: Well, look at the Mars rover that's on the planet now. Spirit is a remarkable piece of machinery. It's taken us 10 days to move it off this lander because we had to do it very meticulously. There's nothing like the cognitive skills of human beings to make judgments at the time, presently, in order to really explore and do things that are necessary.
So I think the combination of both is the focus that the president will enunciate today, and that's exactly the direction we're going to go with.
HEMMER: Let me try and squeeze one more in here in the time we have left here.
O'KEEFE: Certainly.
HEMMER: The past year has been pretty tough. You can go back to February with the shuttle explosion over the State of Texas.
What are you saying right now? How are you addressing the risks involved going forward?
O'KEEFE: The risk of exploration, throughout the course of human history, has always been high. Our challenge is to mitigate, to minimize that risk as much as humanly possible. But to ignore that human instinct to want to go explore and see what's on the other side of that hill would be to deny our human nature.
HEMMER: Sean O'Keefe, thanks, from NASA.
We'll be watching a bit later today from D.C.
Appreciate it.
O'KEEFE: Thank you.
HEMMER: You got it.
The president's announcement comes at 3:15 Eastern and, of course, CNN will be there live to cover it for you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 14, 2004 - 07:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get to space right now. And for NASA scientists, it's all good. First, the incredible pictures of Mars coming from the Spirit rover. And today, President Bush calling for a base on the moon and a manned trip to the red planet eventually.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe with us now to talk about it in D.C.
Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Oh, thanks, Bill.
HEMMER: Nice to see you again.
O'KEEFE: A pleasure.
HEMMER: This is not chump change by any means. It's not bingo money. You're talking billions and billions of dollars here ultimately. Why is it worth it?
O'KEEFE: Well, again, it's not billions and billions in that context. We're talking about every taxpayer contributes, on average, about $0.15 a day, the price of a monthly cable television bill is what's being contributed by the average taxpayer. Less than one percent of the federal budget goes towards this, and that's not going to change.
What is different is the president's going to outline very specific exploration direction and objectives of what we should be targeting ourselves to, develop the technologies in order to achieve that. And that, in his estimation, and what he'll say today, is worth that.
HEMMER: When you talk about taxpayers, the polls show an even split right now in terms of support for this idea, 48 percent to 48 percent, depending on which poll you pay attention to. If that's the case, are you going to have a tough time selling this idea to Americans?
O'KEEFE: Oh, I think every year, every year there ought to be a spirited public debate over what the taxpayers' money, the people's money, is dedicated towards paying for. And that won't be any different this year. What's going to be different, I think, in that respect, is the new direction, a very specific kind of focus that the president's going to enunciate today.
HEMMER: Senator Bill Nelson you know well, out of Florida, has flown actually in a shuttle mission before. He says the five percent increase that will be recommended today from the White House will "not get us to the mono."
Is he right? Is this, in the end, going to be a much higher price tag?
O'KEEFE: Well, the budget comes out in two weeks and we believe that the resources necessary to carry out the objectives the president will enunciate today are going to be included in this budget and forecast in the future.
So let's wait to see the details before we make judgments about them.
HEMMER: And knowing the White House is making the speech today, how do the politics play into this? How important is it for NASA? How important it is it for the White House to give the impression and let Americans know that they are, let's say, big thinkers?
O'KEEFE: Well, it's, again, it's about exploration. It's in the human heart. It's what we're all about as human beings, to want to see what's on the other side of that hill, to explore and discover. And it's what got us out of the caves in the first place.
So in so much, you know, what this is about is not the politics of it, it's about human nature. And that's what the president is really focused on.
HEMMER: So then if you're able to get a permanent base on the moon at some point, let's say within five or 10 years from now, based on the proposal, maybe it's 2020, we'll see, what will that do for space exploration, knowing you have that outpost that is different from the already orbiting international space station?
O'KEEFE: Well, having the capacity to use the moon as a staging area to get to anywhere else in the solar system is a huge advantage. Really, the biggest challenge we always have is getting off this planet. And that's what poses the most aggressive technology challenge.
The moon is an easier kind of basing structure for that purpose. But we'll see. There's a lot of different alternatives we've got to explore and look at to consider how we do that using robotic capabilities, as well as human capabilities. And we want to make that possible.
HEMMER: Yes, and quickly, you mentioned the robot. Just in the short time I have here left, critics will say that robots can do the job that humans cannot, and they can do it cheaper and with greater safety and security.
Your response is what to that?
O'KEEFE: Well, look at the Mars rover that's on the planet now. Spirit is a remarkable piece of machinery. It's taken us 10 days to move it off this lander because we had to do it very meticulously. There's nothing like the cognitive skills of human beings to make judgments at the time, presently, in order to really explore and do things that are necessary.
So I think the combination of both is the focus that the president will enunciate today, and that's exactly the direction we're going to go with.
HEMMER: Let me try and squeeze one more in here in the time we have left here.
O'KEEFE: Certainly.
HEMMER: The past year has been pretty tough. You can go back to February with the shuttle explosion over the State of Texas.
What are you saying right now? How are you addressing the risks involved going forward?
O'KEEFE: The risk of exploration, throughout the course of human history, has always been high. Our challenge is to mitigate, to minimize that risk as much as humanly possible. But to ignore that human instinct to want to go explore and see what's on the other side of that hill would be to deny our human nature.
HEMMER: Sean O'Keefe, thanks, from NASA.
We'll be watching a bit later today from D.C.
Appreciate it.
O'KEEFE: Thank you.
HEMMER: You got it.
The president's announcement comes at 3:15 Eastern and, of course, CNN will be there live to cover it for you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
