NPR’s All Things Considered program on Saturday included a segment on how the three remaining major presidential candidates stack up on space. The four-minute report largely covers material previously reported here (NPR was no more successful than anyone else in coaxing more information out of the Obama campaign about his space policy views). One interesting bit at the end: in response to the old Mike Huckabee statement about sending Hillary Clinton to Mars, the Clinton campaign responded that “she’d love to go to space—after she’s completed her presidency.”
My sense is that Mrs Clinton will have the opportunity to fly into space (provided that she’s willing to shell out the cash to Virgin Galactic) far sooner than she might wish.
I hope Hilary Clinton either commits to giving NASA the funding it needs to get everything done that has been proposed for it, or decides to let the American People know she is using space as a campaign tool to garner more support from (marginal) “space-geeks” who want to go to “Mars or wherever” ,(what she really probably thinks of all these space people”) rather than raise false hopes in the space communtiy for more/adequate funding for civil space/NASA rather than the half a loaf both the Republicans/Bush Administration and the Socialist Workers Party (Oops, I meant the Democratic Party) have given space thus far this century.
It would be interesting to see her ride into space on VG while president. Now that would be a boost for both space tourism and New Space!
Yeah, watch that one be the first one to fail and crash, killing everyone on board…