Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Presidential Candidates on NASA Funding

The two posts below include quotes published on Space Politics. I highly recommend this site for anyone interested in the politics and funding of NASA. It is very high quality and even handed.

My take on the two candidates position is that it is good news for future planetary exploration. Normally, presidential elections essentially ignore NASA and space exploration. This year, both candidates have expressed support for NASA and promised more money.

If the money arrives, it will likely go to the manned flight program (although one can hope for a little to cover the MSL budget woes!). This likely will reduce the pressure to minimize budget requests for the science side of the house to fund the development of the next generation of manned vehicles. Even if the $2B in additional money isn't funded, these quotes suggest that NASA's future budget requests may be more favorably treated by the White House than they have been in the past.

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