NASA’s strange new world

Re “The sudden descent of a shuttle astronaut,” Feb. 7

Even the most glamorous agency the world has ever seen has its blemishes. A celebrated space traveler has fallen from the stars to the point of possibly serving time for a human behavior that’s anathema to the status and stigma we place on astronauts.

They’re just as frail and as human as the rest of us, and, it seems, just as nuts as every one of us.

JOHN C. WEAVER

Palmdale

*

I was astonished to see the front-page photo and article about astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak. She has not even been convicted yet. The article is unadulterated sensationalism, not your usual good approach to journalism. It is really classless. That notwithstanding, you could have at least used her NASA photo instead.

BEVERLY SINCLAIR THORDARSON

Fallbrook

*

How is it possible that a love triangle involving an astronaut, complete with photograph, dominates the front page of the Feb. 7 Times while one of the most important stories of our generation, the failure of the Senate to debate the Iraq war, is buried on Page A18? The astronaut love triangle is a tabloid story. The Senate’s failure to exercise its constitutional responsibilities is a dagger in the heart of American democracy and a threat to our nation’s future.

DENNIS M. CLAUSEN

Escondido