Former NASA Astronaut Discusses AIAA’s International Astronautical Congress Written 18 October 2019

Politico interviews former NASA astronaut “Sandra Magnus, co-chair of the [local] organizing committee for the International Astronautical Congress, which begins Monday in Washington.” Magnus “was AIAA’s executive director from 2012 to 2018.” AIAA is hosting the International Astronautical Congress, which “will bring representatives from space agencies and companies to Washington, where Magnus see a unique opportunity for members of Congress and their staff to learn more about how space benefits their constituents.” Said Magnus, “We should not keep changing our minds and slowing and starting and stopping and going” to the moon “because other countries...are going to do these things. China will be going to the moon at some point and we will be ceding our leadership in space.” The conference’s theme this year is “The Power of the Past, the Promise of the Future.” Added Magnus, “[W]e really want the conference to focus on what’s happening today in space.”
Full Story (Politico)