Hillary Clinton might have the support of an astronaut in her campaign to become democratic presidential nominee, but in her role as Secretary of State she has repeatedly failed to find time for Charles Bolden, the most important man at NASA.

Emails from her now infamous private email server, published yesterday on WikiLeaks, show that between 2009 and 2012 representatives for the NASA administrator and former astronaut tried multiple times over the four year period to arrange a meeting, but were only able to secure one 30 minute slot with Clinton over four years.

The first request held on the email server is from John Hall, director of NASA’s Export Control and Interagency Division, who on 28th October 2009 wrote to Cheryl Mills, then counsellor and chief of staff to Hillary Clinton, to request a meeting.

“The NASA Administrator, Charlie Bolden, and his Deputy, Lori Garver, would like to meet with the Secretary regarding NASA’s engagement with China in civil space activities, which I know is of importance to her,” Hall wrote, adding that Bolden also wished to discuss “his strong interest in working with the Department of State and other agencies to enhance NASA’s international cooperation with non-traditional partners in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America”.

When Mills passed this request onto Clinton, she responded positively, writing “I should meet w him”, and it seems she did, as an email on 5th January 2010 detailing her schedule for the day shows a 10:30am meeting with Charles Bolden, which appears to have run for half an hour.

However, while it is not known what was discussed at the meeting, it seems that Bolden did not get to cover everything he wished to with the Secretary of State, as on 29th October 2011 Hall again sent an email to Mills request a meeting to discuss very similar issues.

“International space cooperation (which is an overall positive point in U.S. foreign policy efforts), new non- traditional space partnerships in furtherance of the Administration’s policies, and China-related issues, are probably the chief items,” he wrote in response to Mills’ request for the desired topics of discussion.

This was forwarded to Clinton with a note from Mills detailing how long Hall had been trying to get in touch.

“The Nasa Administrator has been seeking to see you since July. Lona has been deftly putting them off given your schedule,” she wrote, referring to Lona Valmoro, then special assistant to Hillary Clinton.

Unfortunately for Bolden, the exchange bore no fruit, and on 8th March 2012 Hall was once again emailing Mills to try and arrange a meeting.

“Do you think we might be able to try to give another shot to a brief meeting between Gen. Bolden and the Secretary, please?” he wrote. “I know you guys have been swamped and weren’t able to make it happen last year, but he’d really like to do it if at all possible anytime during the next few months.”

This too, however, was not successful, as the next day Mills declined.

“So now – with Iran and Syria and our challenges in frontline states is just so busy that I would just being unkind to suggest we will get him in,” she wrote.

While the leaked emails run until August 2014, there are no later emails referencing Charles Bolden or such a meeting, suggesting that Clinton did not meet him during this period.

Undoubtedly Clinton had other pressing matters to deal with during this time, but if she becomes president space fans can only hope that she will make far more time for Bolden and NASA.