The latest salvos

(Sorry for the travel-induced delay)

On Monday Republican presidential candidate John McCain, as scheduled, spoke with a group of “government, business and space industry leaders” on the Space Coast about space issues, including the Shuttle-Constellation gap and its effects on the region. Those looking for a new policy pronouncement from the candidate were disappointed, as McCain said little, according to Florida Today, “but prodded people for specific ideas”. That included alternatives to shortening the gap than simply extending the shuttle (he asked how the shuttles could be certified to fly after 2010, per the CAIB’s recommendations). “He repeatedly told the group that he was becoming more focused with eliminating the U.S. reliance on the Russians for launching astronauts and supporting the space station,” the article concluded.

One tidbit: the article states that McCain, like Obama, supports adding one more shuttle flight to the manifest (presumably to fly AMS, as in the case of Obama.) It’s not clear if McCain said this at the Space Coast event or earlier; it’s not specified in his current space policy.

The Florida Democratic Party responded to the McCain visit with a press release criticizing McCain’s statements about and record on space policy. This includes both McCain’s alleged indifference to the consequences of the gap as well opposition to NASA funding. That last point includes this quizzical line: “McCain said he would veto ‘every bill with earmarks,’but earmarks were the source of funding for the Mars mission.” The Mars mission? The release cites two, very different, “Mars missions”, $19 million in 2003 to cover cost increases in robotic exploration, and $1.6 million in 2008 to study a “cost effective nuclear power system to support the long-range objectives of NASA for missions to the moon, to Mars and to deep space”. If they meant human exploration of Mars, the Florida Democrats may have forgotten that the FY08 appropriations bill includes a ban on funding any programs “related exclusively to the human exploration of Mars”.