program ends will lead to a dangerous lack of continuity. astronaut neal armstrong and two colleagues recently wrote an open letter to the president, quoting, without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the usa is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity. america must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space. it is a great honor to bring in, as promised, colonel buzz aldrin, who traveled with the president today on air force one. among aernl aldrin, he was part of apollo 13, he was the second person to set foot on the moon following mission commander neal armstrong. colonel, thank you very much for joining us tonight. we know that you differ with your former colleague about the
highly skilled engineers and other workers once the shuttle program ends will lead to a dangerous lack of continuity. astronaut neil armstrong and two former colleagues recently wrote an open letter to the president quoting. without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides the usa is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity. america must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space. it is a great honor to bring in, as promised, colonel buzz aldrin who traveled with the president today on air force one. among colonel aldrin s many contributions to our nation he was part of the three-man with the apollo 11 mission which was first to land on the moon and on july 20th, 1969, he was the second person to step moot on the moon following mission commander neil armstrong. thank you very much for joining us tonight.
astronaut neal armstrong and two of his former colleagues recently wrote an open letter to the president, quoting, without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the usa is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity. america must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space. it is a great honor to bring in, as promised, colonel buzz aldrin, who traveled with the president today on air force one. among colonel ald rin aldrin s many missions, part of apollo 13, he was the second person to set foot on the moon following mission commander neal armstrong. colonel, thank you very much for joining us tonight. we know that you differ with your former colleague about the merits of the president s plan. could you tell us why you re in favor of president obama s vision of the way forward here?
space for $50 million. we spoke to a private manned spacecraft company who feels the private enterprise can do it for $20 million. that s the point. this administration is saying let s take that transportation of astronauts into space and maybe put that into the private sector. the bottom line here, shifting priorities. nasa s budget is not being cut. the mission is being changed. thank you, ali. we want to bring in the science guy, bill nye, who is in florida to hear the president. let me ask you first about what ali just laid out for us. this is a little controversial here. a of very famous astronauts have come forward and criticized the president s plan, neil armstrong being one of them. they sent out a letter saying his decision is devastating, without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation
defending it. pitting oddly the second man to walk on the moon against the first man to walk on the moon. derrick pitts joins me in a moment. responding to the plans to deep six missions to deep space, apollo commanders writing in this letter, as you see, without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the usa is far too likely to be on a longdown hill slide to mediocrity. a second group of nasa veterans is sending a separate letter to the white house, the white house responding to the criticism, it would retain the constellation moon program, and sending owe ryan unmanned to send as an emergency vehicle. also to speed development on a rocket that could go to mars, then put $6 billion into space taxis and reemploying space center workers.