A confusing space policy editorial

The Washington Times, the smaller—and more conservative—of DC’s two major daily newspapers, published an editorial describing the differences between the Bush and Kerry space policies. The Times should be praised for taking the time, in the final Sunday newspaper before the general election, to discuss space policy. However, their editorial is a little confusing.

The […]

Moon missions and space policy

A Florida Today article Sunday suggests that uncertainty about the outcome of the Presidential election, and the resulting effect on space policy, has frozen efforts to develop a series of robotic lunar missions that would be forerunners of eventual human missions:

“They are not going to go forward with the vision until they see how […]

Weldon and Feeney rebut Glenn

In a column in Friday’s issue of Florida Today, Congressmen Dave Weldon (R-FL) and Tom Feeney (R-FL), who represent the Space Coast, respond to John Glenn’s column of a day earlier on Kerry’s space policy. The response is pretty predictable, although I think they could do better than this line in response to Glenn’s statements […]

Florida Today on Bush vs. Kerry

Florida Today has an article Friday about the space policy positions of Bush and Kerry. Not much new here, although Lori Garver does explain those claims that a Kerry administration would sharply reduce the number of shuttle flights:

Garver said Bush backers are stretching something she said in a Washington debate with Sietzen far out […]

Glenn on Kerry space policy

In Thursday’s edition of Florida Today John Glenn has a column about John Kerry’s recently released space policy. One of the most notable comments is at the very beginning of the column:

There have been false rumors circulated that if my good friend John Kerry is elected president, he will limit future space shuttle flights […]

Schweickart speaks

An Alamogordo (NM) Daily News article reports on a speech given Monday by former astronaut Rusty Schweickart in town (this appears to be a separate appearance from the New Mexico Tech talk he was also scheduled to give Monday.) It appears that Schweickart did not talk about space policy during his appearance (or else the […]

A Kerry space policy statement

The Kerry/Edwards campaign has posted a space policy statement on its campaign website. The content of the policy should not come as much of a surprise for those who attended and/or read the press accounts of the Garver-Sietzen debate. The statement calls the Vision for Space Exploration “a purely political stunt, without being backed up […]

Astronauts on the campaign trail

On Saturday Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin appeared at a Bush campaign rally at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Florida, just south of Cape Canaveral. The Florida Today article about the event includes one quote from Aldrin’s speech: “There is so much more to explore. We need a vision for the future.” According to an […]

Bloomberg, Weiner, and asteroids

In a New York Times article a few days ago about Congressman Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) reelection campaign—which is designed as much to position Weiner to run for mayor of New York next year as to return to Congress—aides to current mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to Weiner’s past interest in funding asteroid research when criticizing ads […]

The future of comments

When I first started this weblog, I had the naive belief that allowing comments to posts would engender discussion about space policy topics and events. In many instances it has, but, unfortunately, the comments in a couple of recent posts have spiraled out of control, featuring some rather unprofessional remarks. This includes allegations of libel, […]