Rare, not so much lately.
andThe House Science Committee, chaired by Texas congressman Rep. Lamar Smith (R), welcomed John Holdren, President Barack Obama’s Director of the Office of Science and Technology, Gen. William Shelton, the commander of U.S. Air Force’s Space Command and NASA Administrator Gen. Charles F. Bolden on Tuesday morning for a hearing entitled “Threats from Space: A Review of U.S. Government Efforts to Track and Mitigate Asteroids and Meteors.”
Holdren, Shelton and Bolden emphasized that while odds of a devastating strike from an object from space are small, the consequences could be enormous. While dozens of objects a meter or more in size strike the Earth’s atmosphere every year, most burn up harmlessly in the upper limits of the stratosphere.
NASA slams spending cuts that put Earth at risk of undetected killer asteroids“We are trying very diligently, as I said before, with the president’s budget,” he said, “to be in a position where we are able to respond.” Congress charged NASA with figuring out the problem, then declined to fund the research, he said.