To the editor:

Mega-congrats to NASA for its spectacular success on the Mars landing. It shows there is still talent and ability in the U.S. NASA is the extreme rarity in government bureaus that actually have a positive return on investment.

NASA and its partners have improved the human condition beyond comprehension, have contributed major improvements to every aspect of life, and yet, the world’s most intelligent and articulate human has de-funded it, outsourced all the jobs and expertise to Russia, China, India, etc. and has told NASA to be an outreach facility to Islam. Let’s see, a 21st century marvel is supposed to outreach to a 9th century ideology that hasn’t contributed anything significant in over a millennium. Yup, sounds like progressive thinking to me.

We need to restart NASA, clean up the problems, set some short and long term goals, fund it better than before by taking money from government failures (war on poverty, war on drugs, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Agriculture, Dept. of Education, Dept. of Commerce, ad infinitum) and put it in an agency of proven supersonic human advancement (pun intended).

RICK KISER

Oak Harbor