Bush’s space plans find unlikely booster in Hillary Clinton
The major presidential candidates pummel each other daily on issues ranging from the Iraq war to health care. But when it comes to President Bush’s ambitious initiative to send humans back to the moon and on to Mars, Sen. Hillary Clinton is all but alone in staking out a formal position - and it’s one that lends support to key aspects of the president’s effort.
She initially outlined the need for a “robust” human spaceflight program last month during a Washington speech on science policy, despite being broadly critical of the Bush administration’s record on scientific issues.
The question of future manned space exploration took on greater prominence this week when Sen. Barack Obama made clear that he is not enamored NASA’s effort to build a new spacecraft to take astronauts to the moon and beyond.
In a position paper on education unveiled in New Hampshire, Clinton’s rival advocated delaying for five years the program to build the new multibillion-dollar Constellation spacecraft and using the savings to fund a variety of education initiatives.
Republican presidential candidates have also been less than effusive about the Bush space initiative.
When asked about their candidates’ positions on the moon-Mars project, a spokeswoman for Sen. John McCain did not respond, while one for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, “I’m not sure anything is out there on this subject.”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign responded by providing a story from the Florida Today newspaper that said, “During the first campaign visit to the Space Coast by a 2008 presidential candidate, Republican Mitt Romney said he supports Bush’s vision for space exploration and has no reason yet to propose a new direction.”
Except for Clinton’s, none of the official campaign Web sites appear to mention NASA or human space exploration specifically.
After NASA’s three space shuttles are retired in late 2010, the United States will have no spacecraft capable of launching astronauts into orbit - although the International Space Station will just be reaching completion.
Bush proposed the Constellation program in 2004 as a way to return Americans to space. His plan envisioned establishment of a settlement on the moon, in part to prepare for the lengthy voyage to Mars.
Congress has generally supported plans for a new spacecraft, although Bush has not asked for additional money to pay for it and some believe that NASA’s many successful unmanned science missions will inevitably be shortchanged to pay for Constellation.
In her Oct. 4 policy statement on a range of scientific issues, Clinton said she “is committed to a space exploration program that involves robust human spaceflight to complete the Space Station and later human missions, expanded robotic spaceflight probes of our solar system leading to future human exploration, and enhanced space science activities.”