Campaign ’12 « Space Politics

Ryan: “we need a mission for NASA”

By Jeff Foust on 2012 September 22 at 8:18 pm ET

Coinciding with the release of a space policy white paper by the Mitt Romney campaign, his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), mentioned space in a campaign appearance in Orlando:

A transcript:

The space program strengthens the entrepreneurial spirit and commercial competitiveness. It launches new industries and new technologies. President Obama campaigned quite […]

Romney campaign issues space policy white paper

By Jeff Foust on 2012 September 22 at 8:16 pm ET

So much for a quiet weekend. On Saturday the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released a space policy white paper. The eight-page document (available on Scribd; it’s listed as a “private document” but you can freely view it at the link or embedded on Romney’s site) is a mix of the campaign’s own […]

Making the case NASA is better off than four years ago

By Jeff Foust on 2012 September 12 at 8:45 am ET

The opening session of the AIAA Space 2012 conference in Pasadena, California, on Tuesday was originally billed to include a “presidential candidates forum” on space issues, featuring representatives of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney campaigns. However, no forum took place during that opening session, since AIAA could not get commitments from the two campaigns to […]

Obama only briefly mentions space in Space Coast appearance

By Jeff Foust on 2012 September 9 at 2:06 pm ET

President Barack Obama spoke for over a half-hour late Sunday morning in a campaign appearance on the campus of the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. However, those expecting him to spend some time talking about space, particularly contrasting his policies with those espoused by the Romney campaign, likely came away disappointed. Obama only briefly […]

Disappointed advocates, advocating scientists

By Jeff Foust on 2012 September 8 at 10:21 am ET

Don’t count the members of the space advocacy group the Space Frontier Foundation fans of either the Democratic or Republican parties’ positions on space. Last week they issued a press release critical of the Republican platform’s space language, suggesting it was as odds with broader party ideology. “NASA seems to be one Big Government program […]

White paper outlines “key accomplishments” of Obama Administration in space

By Jeff Foust on 2012 September 6 at 1:18 pm ET

The Obama campaign in Florida released earlier today a three-page white paper detailing what the Obama Administration has accomplished in space policy during its first term. The paper itemizes those accomplishments in several areas: extending the life of existing space efforts (such as the ISS), supporting the growth of commercial spaceflight, continued investments in science […]

Obama to visit Florida’s Space Coast this weekend

By Jeff Foust on 2012 September 6 at 6:50 am ET

Florida Today reports that President Barack Obama will make a campaign stop Sunday in Florida’s Space Coast region. The appearance in Melbourne, Florida, at a time and location yet to be announced, is part of a series of visits in a state that is key to the outcome of the election. A private meeting with […]

Examining Romney’s ScienceDebate space answer

By Jeff Foust on 2012 September 5 at 6:57 am ET

Yesterday ScienceDebate 2012 released answers to a series of questions on science topics provided by the Obama and Romney campaigns. (Interest was high enough that the web site was largely inaccessible for most of the day; while it appears to be up and running now, a copy of the questions and answers is on Scientific […]

Is one sentence on space enough?

By Jeff Foust on 2012 September 5 at 6:11 am ET

On Tuesday the Democratic Party released its platform, one week after the Republicans did. While space got a two-paragraph plank in the Republican platform, only one sentence in the Democratic one is devoted to space, under the “Out-Innovating the Rest of the World” subheading: “President Obama has charted a new mission for NASA to lead […]

The insignificance of space policy in the 2012 campaign

By Jeff Foust on 2012 September 2 at 9:18 am ET

At first glance, it might appear that space policy got a lot of attention in the last week: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney mentioned the late Neil Armstrong in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, and did so again during a campaign stop on Saturday in Cincinnati, a day after […]

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