WASHINGTON (States News Service) -- President Clinton defended NASA and its "faster, better, cheaper" credo at a news conference Wednesday, stressing the difficulty surrounding missions such as the presumably lost Mars Polar Lander.
"We've all used the slogan 'this isn't rocket science.' Well, this is rocket science," Clinton said. "And we're trying to take a spacecraft the size of a boulder and throw it 450 million miles into an uncongenial atmosphere and it isn't easy."
The $165 million Polar Lander was to land at Mars on Friday for a study of the planet's water history but failed to return a signal ever since. Mission managers say they have little hope in last ditch efforts to locate it.
In related comments, Clinton praised NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, saying he has done a "great job."
"He has gone for smaller, more discreet missions that I think makes a lot of sense," Clinton said.
John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, said Clinton's words would bear on Goldin's reputation.
"I think what's most important is (Clinton's) vote of confidence in (NASA Administrator) Dan Goldin," Logsdon said. "He's not pointing fingers and saying heads must roll."
But House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said the jury's still out on Goldin's reputation in Congress.
"We will have to wait and see what the cause of this failure was before I can give my support to Mr. Goldin's administrative skills," Rohrabacher said.
"I think his strategy of 'faster, better, cheaper' is verified by this," because a lost mission now costs far less than when NASA lost larger missions before, he said.
Because the Mars Climate Orbiter was lost due to a lack of training and communication that led to an embarrassing conversion error, Rohrabacher said, NASA faces pressure to prove that the Polar Lander was not felled by a similar mistake.
If a human error did doom MPL, he said, "Well, then Mr. Goldin's credibility will be questioned and there will be some problems. There will be a hearing on this."
Clinton also spoke about the continued importance of the space program.
"I think it's important, not only for the American tradition of exploration it's also important because we have to keep doing this if we ever want to know what's beyond our own galaxy," Clinton said.
Referring to the fatal Apollo 1 fire that killed three astronauts in the 1960s, Clinton said, "This is nothing compared to the tragedy of astronauts who burned to death when their spacecraft was still on the ground. I don't think I'll ever forget that for the rest of my life. But they didn't quit, and America didn't quit, and I'm glad. And I don't think we should quit now."
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