Some of NASA鈥檚 critics maintain that the real mission of America鈥檚 space
programme is public entertainment. Last week, NASA itself seemed to agree,
as the Atlantis space shuttle crew made a televised appearance at Hollywood鈥檚
Academy Awards ceremony while in orbit.
Introduced by Steven Spielberg, the astronauts joined in a salute to
George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, who received an award for consistently
high standards of film production. With a weightless Oscar floating in front
of him, shuttle commander Charles Bolden described Lucas as 鈥榓n explorer
inhis own right鈥�, and added: 鈥楾he imagination and ingenuitythat have turned
dreams into the reality of space flight are no different than those which
turn ideas and inspiration into motion pictures.鈥�
