On Face the Nation Sunday, Rep. Dick Gephardt answered a question about Bush’s expected new space policy by saying not only he preferred an emphasis on alternative energy programs, which he has previously mentioned, but that NASA should focus first on the International Space Station:
I think that before we make that decision, we’ve really got to decide what we’re doing with the present space program, which is revolving around the space station. I think we need to do a—a real analysis by our scientific community on what the best thing is to do. I don’t think—I haven’t looked at the numbers lately, but I don’t know that we can go off on a new moon mission or Mars mission, if that’s the suggestion, and—and just have the money to do something in addition to completing the space station. I think we’re pretty far down the road on the space station and we need to complete it and have the success from it that we need. One of the good aspects of the space station is that we get to work with the Russians, and we give them an important role, and other countries in the world. I think that’s very important. And maybe down the road we can look into—into other projects.
Dealing with the future of the station will likely be one of the big issues for this new policy: not only is there interest and concern among lawmakers and the US public about the station’s future, there are international partners whose interests and expectations will have to be taken into account.
