Scott Kelly, the former NASA astronaut famous for his “year in space,” was at the Ispace watch party in Washington, DC, on Thursday. In an interview with CNN, he said he stopped by to support his friend and fellow NASA astronaut corps alumnus Ron Garan, the company’s chairman.
“What (Ispace) is doing is really exciting. But space is hard, and the mood is harder, and like Ron was saying, they met a lot of their objectives so far, which is great,” Kelly said.
He also responded to questions about the space policy furor unfolding on Capitol Hill.
President Donald Trump abruptly yanked his support of the Elon Musk-backed NASA administrator nominee, Jared Isaacman, over the weekend.
“That’s really unfortunate,” Kelly said. “(Isaacman is) such a great guy, and I think uniquely, uniquely qualified for this moment. … I think he would have been an outstanding administrator.”
When asked about Trump’s stated plan to explore Mars — a pivot away from his first-term goal of focusing on returning astronauts to the moon — alongside lunar landing efforts, Kelly said, “NASA is constantly hamstrung by the fact that when we get a new administration, we get a new plan.”
“When President Biden was elected, my brother (Democratic Senator Mark Kelly) made a point to his administration that just because it was President Trump’s plan doesn’t mean we need to abandon it,” Scott Kelly said.
When asked about Trump’s proposal to slash NASA’s science budget by almost 50%, Kelly said NASA “will be decimated.”
