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 reporter didn’t think it worthy of mention): the article focuses on what Schweickart thinks about Iraq, energy, and getting students to pursue careers in science and engineering.
(This comment is off-topic on Rusty Schweickart, but relevant to science and spaceflight.)
Physics Today recently published a comparison of the two candidates’ science policies, similar to ones published in Science and Nature.
The Kerry statement went much further than before:
“…[Our administration] will invest in bold new programs tied to priorities, set by scientific experts, in exploring weather, climate, oceans, astrophysics, and other areas. Our administration will rely on the advice of the scientific community to select the most appropriate goals for research and the most appropriate tools for achieving these goals— including the question of whether manned or unmanned missions are most appropriate to the task.”
Presidential Candidates Speak Out on Science Policies
Physics Today
http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-57/iss-10/p28.html
If a Kerry administration “will rely on the advice of the scientific community” on “whether manned or unmanned missions are most appropriate to the task”, the scientific community’s advice will almost certainly be to scrap human spaceflight and use robots only. No shuttle, no station, and no new crewed vehicles or missions.
The Kerry campaign seems to be moving to an extreme position. Not only is it against the Vision for Space Exploration, but it will be against any future for human spaceflight.
lamonitor.com has an article on Schweickart’s political support of Kerry, it starts out by describing Schweickart as “Legendary Apollo-9 Astronaut”.
No disrespect intended to Schweickart, but I hardly think he ranks as a “legendary” astronaut.
I guess they wanted to give him a bit more stature, and by proxy more stature to Kerry in the process.
BTW Aldrin endorses Bush, now Aldrin qualifies as a legendary astronaut.
http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2004/10/28/headline_news/news05.txt