Former NASA Scientist Slams Kamala Harris Meeting as "Photo Op"

"The public has no clue whatsoever as to what is going on."

Space Cancelled

A former NASA scientist-turned-vocal critic of the space agency is once again throwing shade on his erstwhile employer — this time for creating a council whose sole purpose, he suggests, is to provide "photo ops."

That former NASA employee, Keith Cowing, noted in a recent NASA Watch post that the White House's notice about White House National Space Council (NSC), set to take place today with Vice President Kamala Harris touring the Johnson Space Center facilities, was heavy on imagery but very light on details.

"Nothing but crickets since then," Cowing wrote in the post, which he titled "National Space Council Meetings Are Simply Photo Ops."

"Absolutely no public information as to what the VP and the people at this meeting will actually do," he continued, "and no one seems to care."

What's Going On

As the former NASA boffin noted, there has so far been bupkis released about the forthcoming Space Council meeting on any of the government sites where such details should be posted, nor on NASA TV. In spite of this striking lack of specifics, however, "invitations are being sent out to people of influence and some media celebrities to attend."

"How is it that the National Space Council actually does anything?" Cowing wrote. "The public has no clue whatsoever as to what is going on."

As Cowing noted in previous blog posts, the NSC has been plagued with a lack of transparency and a pervasive sense of purposelessness during Joe Biden's presidential term.

"Either they do not know and/or do not care if the rest of us know what is going on [with regards to] space policy," Cowing tweeted.

Unfortunately, it looks like he's right.

READ MORE: National Space Council Meetings Are Simply Photo Ops [NASA Watch]

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