Houston, we have a problem — Muslim countries are feeling insecure.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, interviewed yesterday on the Arabic news station al-Jazeera, said President Obama had given him three missions, the “foremost” of which was to improve relations with the Muslim world.
“He wanted me to help reinspire children to want to get into science and math,” Bolden said. “He wanted me to expand our international relationships.
“And, third and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science . . . and math and engineering.”
Space travel is an international collaboration, and Muslim nations must be a part of it, Bolden said — noting that the moon, Mars and asteroids remain planned destinations for NASA.