Katie Couric's Notebook: To The Moon
In today's Notebook, Katie remembers the dawn of the space age, with the launch of Sputnik on this date -- and wonders if all the money for space exploration has been well spent. Click the monitor to watch.
October 4, 2006 2:05 PM
Video: Video and Galleries
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As for poverty and all of that, well, if the dictators who are oppressing their people in the world would actually care about their people, most of the world's poverty would be wiped out.
Just something to think about.
We have let people like George Washington, Ben Franklin Thomas Edison, and Martin Luther King Jr. Down, They prayed each day for guidance, I Have to hand it to Lee Greenwood on his song %u201CGod Bless The U.S.A., he loves this country, and is willing to stand up for what our forefathers stood for, and so am I, can you say the same thing?
This part of our nation's history is something that everyone needs to appreciate fully and applaud. Perhaps Ms. Couric should consider doing a commentary on this point, taking a more positive and celebratory message to viewers about the accomplishments that enhance our daily lives. NASA historians could likely provide that information quickly. One can find this information easily on the web or in published books, if one has a desire to look for the positive.
The $17B NASA budget pales next to the huge sums of money being spent in more destructive pursuits. Instead of questioning the value of science, people should question the value of war, unrestrained assaults on the environment for short-term profit, habitat destruction, and species extinction. Ask instead, "How much good could our tax dollars do if spent for constructive purposes?"
Your simplistic suggestion that our astronauts do nothing more than "watch the world go by" from the space station is absurdly ridiculous, if not appalingly ignorant.
If you had simply visited NASA's website, you would see the immense value of the experiments that they are conducting.
And as you 'can't help but wonder' if the $17 billion budgeted for the space program could be better spent elsewhere, how about asking the same questions of those responsible for the Iraq war, which has already cost us $330 billion, and is forecast to reach more than $1 trillion by the time we are able to leave.
Many of us can't help but wonder what we have received in return for that money, much of which appears to have been squandered by incompetent administrators and unqualified contractors.
Never mind the lives we have lost, or the thousands of injured that we have suffered.
When put in this context, can you not see what a disservice you do to public debate, when you put forward such thoughtless commentary?
Right now we do not need 'infotainment' stories, softball questions and dumbed-down commentary. We need serious journalists to do their research, put things in context, and ask the tough questions.
I'd ask that you please live up to that responsibility.
If you really were serious about the topic you'd have had some of your staff do a little research before trying to cram an analysis of American budgetary priorities - into a cute little sound bite. If you are so outraged why not complain about things that truly have no social value - the money we as a nation spend on makeup, pro wrestling, lottery tickets, and TV anchor salaries? Think of all the money spent on these things that could be channeled for a greater good.
Pay the Russians their $20 million, go over to Star City, and put your money where your mouth is. Walter Chronkite deserves it far more than you ever will, but at least you'll have the experience to back up your hot air.
Roci
By the way, all money spent on space is spent on the "solid ground" of Earth. There are not yet shops of banks elsewhere.
Mark R. Whittington
author of Children of Apollo
Most of our country%u2019s over-the-horizon frontiers are now covered with parking lots. Filled with cars. Cars driven by real people, with real jobs, paying taxes for the parks that our kids play in, paying for our national security, and fixing the damage caused by Rita and Katrina. Spending the money on the ground, as Katie says.
So after we have the infrastructure to reliably get off the planet, we will make those inevitable discoveries on the moon. And those discoveries will be closely followed by opportunities for commerce. And more parking lots.
So maybe space exploration is important because of Teflon, Velcro, and Tang after all. But not because they are rightly or wrongly identified as spin-offs from the space program. Tomorrow, new Teflons, Velcros, and Tangs will follow along with the other new discoveries enabled by NASA%u2019s transportation infrastructure. And they will ultimately be important because we can sell them.
And protect our country with them.
Perhaps you should try at least a modicum of research on your topic before you denigrate one of the finest quests humanity has undertaken in modern history to further itself. Every cent of the money you purport has been wasted on the exploration of Space was spent right here on plant earth - ultimately paid to real people who have dedicated themselves to the advancement of mankind.
Have we stumbled along the way, you bet. With any new advancement, no risk equals no gain. Even when we make mistakes we learn something new, we make things better, and we keep going. Which is worse Katie; noble, brave people paying the ultimate price to further mankind, or the hopeless kids that get killed on the streets every day in drug deals gone bad and mindless, ignorant gang violence?
Ultimately, humanity continues to be enriched across a broad spectrum in this quest for discovery, and countless lives have been changed for the better in more ways than you and your contemporaries could possibly care to comprehend. I suppose in your vernacular though, that if it isn't a government social program dispensing taxpayer dollars, creating more hopeless socialist automatons; it must by definition be waste.
Why focus on such a small part of the US budget? Surely there have to be other areas we were even less wise in and accomplished even less for our tax spending.
Doesn't modern TV owe a lot to the space program infrastructure for the rockets to lift satellites and the electronics to populate the comm functions of those satellites? To say nothing of the equipment miniaturization that allows ubiquitous camera access anywhere on the ground [of this and at least one neighboring planet].
Of course if Ms Couric has some solid well thought out recommendations on technically achievable directions that meet the current political litmus tests for space exploration, I think it would be helpful if she published those.
Aren't grand explorations expected of great nations?
Please forgive me for paraphrasing, but it was along the lines of "During the period of the US Apollo program, American women spent as much money on cosmetics as NASA spent going to the moon."
"Money better spent", indeed.
You've spent much of your career peddling soft news. Have you been dumbed down by your own reporting?
How would the satellites that transmit your news around the country every night have ever gotten there if NASA hadn't had a hand at some point along the way?
Love you show. Please wear shorter shirts.
Katie,
Each and every iota of you broadcasts is the result of space exploration. From your wireless microphone, to the cameras that record your words and images, and to the computer on which I just watched you give your commentary came from manned space flight efforts. Even the ergonomically designed chair (that you for some reason refuse to sit upright in) came from studies kicked-off by NASA.
As Mr. Cowing previously stated, %u201C%u2026There are no stores or banks in space. Every dollar is spent on Earth - and ends up as salaries in the pockets of real people%u2026%u201D
Those are dollars that also go to research on ending disease, eliminating poverty, buying air-time on CBS, and are funneled into innumerable charities.
Consider the enormous amount of those dollars though that go to the government in the form of taxes.
Yes, it is somewhat a self-eating watermelon. But, that watermelon is capable of spitting seeds. With tax money funding new tax revenue, %u2018seed money%u2019 from the taxpayers is spat out aimed right back at the tax paying public.
Sometimes the spat seed manages to strike the taxpayer in the eye and draw tears. The loss of the crews (of what came to be known as) Apollo 1, and the loss of the Challenger, and Columbia crews are a few examples of such tears. Even through our tears though, we managed to develop new technologies to prevent the recurrence of such eye-watering events.
The most fertile ground that any of those seeds can possibly land upon though is the fallow, as yet unseeded, and fertile minds and imaginations of our children. When such seeds take root in such a place there is no limit to how tall, and beautiful, and wondrous, and most importantly, fruitful such a plant will become.
Katie, lean back, look up, and wonder. There is no telling what is out there. There is no telling YET. If we don%u2019t look up and wonder, we will remain ignorant of possibilities we cannot even imagine. We will focus our energies, blood, and treasure on terrestrial inanities ad infunitum until we find ourselves concerned only with ratings, profits, runaway brides, and film actor antics. If such happens, we deserve whatever it is you seem to want us to get.
P.S. As you leaned in your chair during your commentary, you were leaning to the right. Just thought you might want to know.
Advanced breast cancer detection
Micro x~ray cameras
Digital mammography
Genetic abnormality detection
Composite "Smart" surgical instruments
Pill~size transmitters to monitor fetal activity
LED probes to treat skin cancer, brain tumors and wound healing
IR ear thermometers
Prosthetic arms and legs
CATScans and MRIs
"Cool" lasers for heart surgery (Angioplasty)
Human tissue stimulation
Ultrasound skin damage assessment (burns)
"Cool" suit to relieve symptoms of MS and Cerebral Palsy
Programmable pacemaker
Voice~controlled wheelchair
Advanced ocular screening for young children
Inexpensive radiation detection
Smoke detectors
Cordless tools/appliances
Satellite TV technology
Home insulation
Water purification
Firefighter breathing systems
"Jaws of Life"
Emergency response robot (bombs, etc...)
Self~righting life raft
Personal alarm system
Virtual reality
Global communication
Advanced lasers for medical instruments, TV graphics, data storage, telecommunications and semi~conductor processing
Landmine clearing products & techniques
Oceanographic modeling & tracking
Oil spill control
Forest fire fighting and control
Hydroponics
Global mapping technology
Polarized sunglasses
Windshear prediction
Lightning protection
Collision avoidance systems
Document and artwork protection and authentication
Archeology
Governmentally speaking...a pretty good investment.
Brett Switzer
Jefferson City, MO
And, to paraphrase the movie "American President", you just lost my viewship. CBS should bring back Connie Chung.
I mean no offense and will not go into as much detail as the poster above but - you're wrong. NASA is one of the few government activities that puts more back into the economy than it takes from the taxpayer.
Give us a ring at Liftport in Bremerton, Washington and we'll set the story straight.
Brian Dunbar
brian.dunbar@liftport.com
Liftport
I sent a comment to CBSNews regarding your newscast. This was before I finally found my way here.
Need to get your Webmeister up to speed on 'user-friendly'.
Anyway, on to the meat.
As I stated in my commentary e-mail, NASA gets less than 1% of the Federal Budget.
Let me repeat:
NASA GETS LESS THAN 1% OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET.
Social programs get over 50%, possibly over 60%.
STOP pouring money into panaceas, and start pouring money into programs that generate GOOD-PAYING JOBS!
Start pouring money into EDUCATION programs that DEMAND GREATNESS from kids; STOP molly-coddling them. STOP excusing PARENTS for NOT PARENTING. STOP THE SINGLE MOST DANGEROUS practice in our schools today: PEER Promotion!
Give NASA the chance to SAVE THIS WORLD - and your children's future.
Don't they deserve it? Don't your girls deserve to HAVE a future? One where they can continue to learn and grow?
Or should they huddle in a grass shack, picking lice off their daughters' scalps?
Case closed.
And yes, I am a proud Vietnam Veteran, and proud to be a science-fiction fan. Because MY eyes are on the future - of the world, and the human race.
This has to be one of the worst commentaries ever. Do your homework. The space program has given us thousands of inventions, and a great understanding of world, from global warming and weather to geology.
What's next??? A moon hoax piece?
With increasingly bad PR spreading with our cultural, economic, and mostly political missteps, NASA is one of the few remaining facets of the US that is viewed almost completely positively in most of the world. Every time you learn that some new section of the globe is becoming disheartened with America, consider the millions of people disseminated around the world who continue to be thrilled for the US and mankind when they see incredible closeup pictures of the rings of Saturn, learn of the exploits and accomplishments of the little robots on Mars, or see an international group of danger-defying scientists on the International Space Station. Shame on you and your staff, with such out-of-proportion role model power, to so casually impugn a REAL role model for Americans and American youth in particular. Although NASA is humanly flawed, as is every other agency in the world, its undebatably immense contributions in the early and continuing phases of telecommunications, weather prediction, climatology, and global monitoring, not to mention the innumerable technologies it has spawned, make your dangerously casual dismissal terribly sad.
She still clings to the long-proven falsehood that money our tax money particularly is the univeral bandaid to all ills. How sad it is that a major media figure can question a proud and substanitive program such as NASA while we as a society continue to fund late-term abortions, give away programs, and other wastes that blatently create and promote dependancy.
You want to cure hunger? Find a hungry person and tell them where they can find work to pay for food. Don't hand them a dime! Once you do that, you've created a never-ending sense of dependancy.
Back to NASA ~ Anybody take notice of how many lives have been spared due to hurricanes since the advent of satellites? Honestly, take a look at the death tolls for pre-satellite major hurricanes. They were in the TENS OF THOUSANDS! Now we know where they are born, what direction they are headed, and what best way to get out of the way. That fact alone is worth the price.
Ms. Couric ~ please have your staff at least do a courtesy check on your commentary ~ it's embarrassing to watch you make such a liberal fool of yourself. Oops, there I go with that oft-repeated redunancy again....
I just viewed your comments on the (doubtful) value of NASA.
I cannot believe that you and/or your staff could be so uninformed, especially at the same time you are reputedly part of a news organization more robust than the Geezer Gazette. I can't help but think that the world would be better served if CBS had donated your salary to NASA and you were sent home to do some remedial reading and browsing of such websites as imagiverse.org
Then again, maybe this was just a cry to the airwaves to see if anyone was watching, and cared enough to write one of these responses.
Stephen Mitchell
That $12mil a year isn't buying CBS too much, now is it?
Where's Bob Schieffer when you need him?
Unlike the Pentagon, NASA has a positive mission - to explore. The space agency has garnered worldwide admiration for the U.S. over the years, something that Iraq certainly hasn't provided.
So why do you pick on NASA funding without mentioning Iraq? Ratings?
I miss Bob.
- Ed Kyle
Well, you need not wonder anymore; without NASA & the space program, everything from plastics to newer-lighter cars, internal medicine, and everything in between would be much further behind.
When the world talks about the United States, they say "You sent a man to the moon, but you can't...." [Fill in the blanks].
NASA is THE Standard by which all Americans are held, and will likely be the greatest legacy we leave over the next millennia.
Of all the great things our progressive science & aerospace programs have given back to us, the price of positive publicity in the world's opinion is a pittance compared to what has been spent.
CBS could do well to take note of this. Your salary alone could pay over 600 Engineers & Scientists salaries over the next decade. Think about THAT when you talk of 'spending money on the ground'.
As has already been said so eloquently: EVERY NASA DOLLAR IS SPENT ON EARTH.
Not only is the current NASA budget less than 1% of our annual budget, IT IS ALSO LESS THAN IT WAS 30 YEARS AGO (when we sent men to the Moon: in 1969 it was $19B), and that is NOT adjusted for inflation!
That was back when cigarettes were 30 cents a pack, and a House often cost less than $30,000. Now that the average American cannot purchase a new car for the latter price, and cigarettes run over $5 per pack, we're beginning a new space-race.
Now we%u2019re spending less than %5 annually of what we did during the 60%u2019s.
If you want to know what real news is, ask Walter Cronkite. He was literally at a loss for words, or maybe he simply realized no commentary at all from him was even necessary. I can only imagine how disappointed he is in what you've made the CBS Evening News into--fluffy, light and loaded with college sophomore level handwringing from somebody taking home a salary in the low 8 figures.
It was that great of an acheivement, and it was for all mankind as Armstrong proclaimed.
I bet Dan Rather and Bob Scheiffer were also groaning and shaking their heads in disgust at how narrow and small your vision really is.
Save the platitudes for cocktail parties on the Upper West Side.
If you want to know what real news is, ask Walter Cronkite. He was literally at a loss for words, or maybe he simply realized no commentary at all from him was even necessary.
It was that great of an acheivement, and it was for all mankind, as Armstrong proclaimed.
I can only imagine how disappointed he must be to see what you've made the CBS Evening News into--light, fluffy and loaded with college sophomore level handwringing from somebody taking home a salary in the low 8 figures.
I bet Dan Rather and Bob Scheiffer were also groaning and shaking their heads in disgust at how narrow and small your vision really is.
Please do us a favor and save the platitudes for the cocktail party circuit.
Not that I don't acknowledge all the advancements because of it...but I'm just not sure I had to have them anyway.
"NASA is one of the few remaining facets of the US that is viewed almost completely positively in most of the world. Every time you learn that some new section of the globe is becoming disheartened with America, consider the millions of people disseminated around the world who continue to be thrilled for the US and mankind when they see incredible closeup pictures of the rings of Saturn, learn of the exploits and accomplishments of the little robots on Mars, or see an international group of danger-defying scie
ntists on the International Space Station."
It is said that NASA returns $7 to the US economy for every dollar put into it. Reality check: for comparison, Americans spend more than $160 billion per year entertainment, sporting events, movie tickets, etc. That's nearly ten times NASA's budget!
So you gotta ask yourself Katie, would you fund a program that provides excellent jobs and a myriad of benefits to humanity, or would you rather watch millionaires running around on a field playing a child's game or one of Hollywood's awful remakes?
I think CBS should fire you and use your salary to fund a scholarship program for needy kids. By my calculation you could send nearly a thousands kids to college on full scholarships. I wonder what impact that would have down here on planet Earth? I guess we'll never know...
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by kdconod
October 7, 2006 1:51 AM PDT
- That was one of the most ill-informed commentaries I've heard in quite some time.
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Reply to this comment
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See all 35 CommentsIt is said that NASA returns $7 to the US economy for every dollar put into it. Reality check: for comparison, Americans spend more than $160 billion per year entertainment, sporting events, movie tickets, etc. That's nearly ten times NASA's budget!
So you gotta ask yourself Katie, would you fund a program that provides excellent jobs and a myriad of benefits to humanity, or would you rather watch millionaires running around on a field playing a child's game or one of Hollywood's awful remakes?
I think CBS should fire you and use your salary to fund a scholarship program for needy kids. By my calculation you could send nearly a thousands kids to college on full scholarships. I wonder what impact that would have down here on planet Earth? I guess we'll never know...