Space Politics

Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway…

McCain: “strong supporter” of NASA and space program

January 27, 2008 at 9:29 pm · Filed under Campaign '08

A reader tipped me off to this new space policy statement from the McCain campaign:

John McCain have been a strong supporter of NASA and the space program. He is proud to have sponsored legislation authorizing funding consistent with the President’s vision for the space program, which includes a return of astronauts to the Moon in preparation for a manned mission to Mars. He believes support for a continued US presence in space is of major importance to America’s future innovation and security. He has also been a staunch advocate for ensuring that NASA funding is accompanied by proper management and oversight to ensure that the taxpayers receive the maximum return on their investment. John McCain believes curiosity and a drive to explore have always been quintessential American traits. This has been most evident in the space program, for which he will continue his strong support.

The statement refers to authorizing legislation McCain introduced: this was S. 2541, introduced in June 2004 by McCain with three Republican co-sponsors: George Allen of Virginia, Sam Brownback of Kansas, and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. At that time McCain was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has oversight of NASA, while Brownback was chairman of the committee’s space subcommittee. Note that this is not the same version as the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, which was passed in the 109th Congress; McCain was not a sponsor of the 2005 version (S. 1281), most likely because by then he was no longer chairman of the commerce committee. The two versions, though, do share a number of key provisions.

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9 Comments »

www.actionforspace.com wrote @ January 28th, 2008 at 6:54 am

That’s great that he has come out and stated his support in a campaign context, but why hasn’t he met with the Florida Space Coast EDC? That would go a lot further with the Florida voters than simple making this statement on his website.

BL wrote @ January 28th, 2008 at 9:24 am

John McCain HAVE been? Looks like McCain’s staff HAS been operating without an editor.

J.B. wrote @ January 28th, 2008 at 9:26 am

Note that it is simply stating what he has done in the Senate. It is not describing what his space policy would be as President.

actionforspace.com wrote @ January 28th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

I agree. It really is unimpressive.

McCain on Space « In Other Words wrote @ February 24th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

[...] A little reaction here. [...]

NASA’s Mission « In Other Words wrote @ May 13th, 2008 at 6:23 am

[...] do we have Presidential candidates that have spoken clearly on the issue? Well, why yes, we do. It may seem odd, but NASA’s mission in most certainly in our own hands, more so [...]

Spaced out « Upturned Earth || John Schwenkler wrote @ May 19th, 2008 at 3:51 pm

[...] this be yet another case where Obama’s good sense trumps Republican insanity? Signs point to yes … No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. [...]

Charles Stoy wrote @ June 3rd, 2008 at 4:48 am

Does this mean that McCain also supported the NASA position on Global Warming? He sat on the committe with oversight responsibility when NASA took its position….

David wrote @ July 8th, 2008 at 1:52 am

‘Obama’s good sense trumps Republican insanity’ — John Schwenkler

Obama has clearly stated that he would delay the constellation program for 5 years to pay for his education programs. Sounds like a great idea… Since we are essentially donating all of our NASA rocket scientists to the European Space Agency, lets go ahead and give them our shuttles and our plans for the moon to China and the RKA.

McCain is CLEARLY in the right position here, going status quo with Bush’s moon mission.

A vote for Obama is a vote to make us 4th place in space… (RKA, ESA, Chinese Space Program, then NASA) Doesn’t that make you proud?