Speakeasy: Astronaut dings U.S. space policies

— Former NASA astronaut and “first mother to fly in space” Anna Fisher, answering a mother who asked for advice for her young son, an aspiring astronaut. Fisher was at Dulles International Airport, where the space shuttle Discovery was making its last flight before being retired — on the back of a 747. The comment was a veiled dig at the Obama Administration, which ended the U.S. space shuttle program last summer. Each American astronauts wishing to reach the International Space Station must pay Russia $63 million for a ride.