More NASA budget details emerge

In the last few days some details have emerged about what NASA’s FY05 budget—scheduled to be released on February 2—will look like. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe told reporters this week that the agency will get $16.2 billion in ’05, an increase in line with what the President announced this week. He didn’t, however, offer details […]

Conservative opposition to Bush space plan

Both Reuters and the San Francisco Chronicle report that one possibility why President Bush left his new space initiative out of the State of the Union address Tuesday is because of conservative opposition to expensive projects. “Critics said the mere mention of the program would have drawn groans from some members of both parties,” write […]

Who knew it was running?

“Mars Rover Opportunity Drops Presidential Bid, Endorses Dean.” A satirical article with a few good laughs, particularly in the last paragraph.

No space for space in SOTU

President Bush elected not to mention his new space initiative in last night’s State of the Union address. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, given that he dedicated a whole speech to the topic less than a week earlier. Nonetheless, it seems like the Democrats were expecting some mention of the plan […]

You won’t have Dick Gephardt to kick around anymore

What Dick Gephardt thinks about Bush’s space initiative has now largely become irrelevant, after a poor showing in Iowa. He still does have the final year of his term in Congress, and could reappear this summer as a possible running mate to whomever wins the nomination, so don’t completely ignore his views, just don’t count […]

Edwards: going to the Moon is… great!

Another Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John Edwards, was on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. Host Bob Schieffer asked Edwards what he thought of returning to the Moon. Edwards’ response, according to the official transcript:

Well, I think–I think–I think going to the moon is–is great. The gr–the real issue is what are we doing […]

Gephardt on Meet the Press

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dick Gephardt was on Meet the Press Sunday, where host Tim Russert asked him if the country could afford both Gephardt’s health care plan as well as human missions to the Moon and Mars. Gephardt’s response was not surprising, for those who followed his previous statements on the issue…

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Clark’s campaign doesn’t get it

In preparation for my Space Review article about the positions of the Democratic presidential candidates on space, I contacted, but did not hear from, the Wesley Clark campaign. Much to my surprise, I did get an email from them Sunday morning. However, it was clear that the campaign hadn’t read my message asking for their […]

Poll shows weak support for new initiative

A new poll conducted for CBS News and the New York Times suggests that a large fraction of the American public shows little interest, if not is outright opposed, to the new Bush space initiative. A few items from the poll results (go to pages 33 and 34 for the space-related questions):

40 percent think […]

Lieberman’s shaky budget

Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman took some time Saturday to reiterate past statements that he would rather spend money on new initiatives to develop cures for major diseases than on a new space initiative, the AP reported:

“That’s where I’m going to spend my money—here on Earth, rather than spend a trillion to put a […]