By Justin Brenneman
Washington Square News

U-WIRE ÷ A New York University professor and aerospace historian lashed out against NASA and the Bush administration Wednesday, criticizing the space program for a "perpetual lack of direction" and suggesting that the program's real purpose should be planetary defense.

William Burrows, a journalism professor in the Faculty of Arts and Science, charged that NASA has run "a very, very slip-shod program" since its inception.

Burrows' comments were made during a journalism department presentation Wednesday at Carter Hall. The event was scheduled in response to the loss of the space shuttle Columbia on Saturday, in which all seven astronauts on board were killed. The shuttle broke up shortly after re-entering the earth's atmosphere, showering debris across the southern United States.

Burrows, a nationally known writer on the space program who has authored several books on the topic, said the Columbia space shuttle's mission was little more than a public relations event meant to disguise the fact that the agency had no viable research to do.

"Seven people got killed on Saturday hauling spiders, ants and mosquitoes into orbit," Burrows said. "That happened because they were running out of missions for the space shuttle."

Many Americans do not know or care about NASA missions, Burrows said.

"The dilemma the space program has had since the beginning is that there is no large constituency for space travel," Burrows said. NASA administrators have recruited women, minorities and members of the general public to travel on the shuttle in an unsuccessful attempt to make people relate to space travel, he said.