Did Jimmy Carter have woo-woo influence on NASA ?

[Launch window]

Negative influence on NASA and science is certainly something you can associate with the current Republican admin. George W Bush giving NASA the new herculean goals while cutting their funding, using his veto power against stem-cell science, putting the Uber-Christian George Deutsch in control of NASA's press.

Carter came after the troubled Nixon/Ford presidency, James Earl Carter he was the only president on record to actually file the UFO sighting report related to his sighting, Carter also had very strong backing from evangelical voters. Nixon was a problem, he shutdown Apollo, as a compromise to the people at NASA who were finding themselves shutdown Nixon approved the Shuttle, Gerald Ford seemed to be very inactive at NASA, and Jimmy Carter seemed to be more interested in this flying saucer stuff, with NASA's Voyager mission Carter was supposed to have recorded a message for the alien civilizations of the galaxy. Do you guys remember those years and did he have a negative impact on the space program, or was it just a harmless attraction to this UFO idea ?

I suppose this question is addressed to the 40 year+ members of baut, who studied, worked, lived...during this time.

[Paracelsus]

Well, even though I was only 10 at the end of Carter's administration, I was still very interested in space exploration and kept up with NASA. I believe the message plaque on Voyager was an outgrowth of SETI. Sagan was pretty involved in developing it, as I remember.

[Neverfly]

Negative influence on NASA and science is certainly something you can associate with the current Republican admin. George W Bush giving NASA the new herculean goals while cutting their funding, using his veto power against stem-cell science, putting the Uber-Christian George Deutsch in control of NASA's press.

Carter came after the troubled Nixon/Ford presidency, James Earl Carter he was the only president on record to actually file the UFO sighting report related to his sighting, Carter also had very strong backing from evangelical voters. Nixon was a problem, he shutdown Apollo, as a compromise to the people at NASA who were finding themselves shutdown Nixon approved the Shuttle, Gerald Ford seemed to be very inactive at NASA, and Jimmy Carter seemed to be more interested in this flying saucer stuff, with NASA's Voyager mission Carter was supposed to have recorded a message for the alien civilizations of the galaxy. Do you guys remember those years and did he have a negative impact on the space program, or was it just a harmless attraction to this UFO idea ?

I suppose this question is addressed to the 40 year+ members of baut, who studied, worked, lived...during this time.

You DO know that Carter was a Democrat right?

A good reason why politics is best left at the door.

[Launch window]

Yeah I know he's a Democrat I agree with the no-politics rule of the forum but I think its still appropriate to discuss a President's policy on NASA and if this was a positive or negative influence on NASA

I suppose his message on the Voyager spacecraft is something productive/positive because SETI is science driven and not something based on superstition or fiction

His faith in UFOs however just seems a bit silly to me, and his sighting should have been investigated and Debunked

[Maksutov]

[edit]His faith in UFOs however just seems a bit silly to me, and his sighting should have been investigated and Debunked

Carter's UFO sighting was just that, a UFO sighting.

To reiterate, UFOs do not equate to alien spacecraft.

They're objects in the sky (hence the rather anachronistic "flying" part) that haven't (yet) been identified.

But, if there was any tendency to give credibility to the idea that Carter had seen an alien spacecraft, then the attack of the killer rabbit put that to rest soon enough, y'all.

[Gillianren]

My understanding is that, if Jimmy Carter did see an alien spacecraft, it was flying in front of Venus at the time.

[mugaliens]

But, if there was any tendency to give credibility to the idea that Carter had seen an alien spacecraft, then the attack of the killer rabbit put that to rest soon enough, y'all.

LOL - Rabies will even make a Rabbit Rabid.

[jrkeller]

I was in a high school during most of the Carter years. Here's what I remember.

He ended the era of expandable launch vehicles (or at least he tried) and designated shuttle only.

He got the Hubble Space Telescope going, but that also included the poorly ground mirror.

He cancelled the ion powered mission to Halley's comet.

During his tenure, NASA recieved one of Proxmire's Golden Fleece Awards "For proposing to spend $14 to $25 billion over the next seven years to try to find intelligent life in outer space."

That does sound a little woo-woo.

NASA was funded consistantly under his tenure.

[ToSeek]

Carter's influence on NASA is a legitimate subject for discussion, but superfluous political comments should be kept to a minimum. [/moderator hat]

I was in college during the Carter era and don't remember any significant influence on NASA one way or the other. There certainly weren't a whole lot of innovations or changes of direction during that time.

[Swift]

I was in college during the Carter era and don't remember any significant influence on NASA one way or the other. There certainly weren't a whole lot of innovations or changes of direction during that time.

Me too on college and me too on Carter and NASA. I think the nation as a whole was kind of coming off of the post-Apollo malaise and had other things on its collective mind.

I found this space.com webpage on achievements of the 1970s and this page for the 1980s, and 1977 to 1981 are pretty thin. The only highly notable things for NASA were the Voyager flybys (but that work started before Carter) and the launch of the first shuttle.

[novaderrik]

it was the 70's...
Jimmy was probably too busy showing off his pet rock and telling all his buddies about his UFO sighting at the White House fondu/disco parties to actually get anything done.
and this theory expalins more than just the space program..
at that time, NASA was switching over from the Apollo era rockets to the shuttle, so there was a lot going on there. much like the next few years as the shuttle gets phased out and we progress back to the classic rocket shape for our spacecraft once again..

[Paracelsus]

During his tenure, NASA recieved one of Proxmire's Golden Fleece Awards "For proposing to spend $14 to $25 billion over the next seven years to try to find intelligent life in outer space."

That does sound a little woo-woo.

Funny you should say that, considering that some of the most notable people in astronomy and astrophysics were involved in the SETI project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI), namely luminaries like Carl Sagan, Frank Drake, and Paul Horowitz among others. Would you consider them 'woo-woo's?

[jrkeller]

Funny you should say that, considering that some of the most notable people in astronomy and astrophysics were involved in the SETI project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI), namely luminaries like Carl Sagan, Frank Drake, and Paul Horowitz among others. Would you consider them 'woo-woo's?

Not the idea or the people behind it, but the cost.

[Gillianren]

I'm guessing they considered all of NASA's budget part of it. Sloppy math.

[Superluminal]

Back in the 70's there was a magazine called "UFO Report" that endorsed Carter. Because of what they believed was his belief in ufos, they thought he would declassify everything the gov. had on ufos. Since he didn't declassify anything, that would seem to indicate that either the gov. didn't have anything or TPTB got to him.

[Disinfo Agent]

Or he was never as curious about UFOs a they had thought.