Hillary Clinton Declares War on Space Exploration

Recently, Senator Hillary Clinton revealed her science agenda. Of great interest to people involved in making and debating space policy were the three bullets concerning the space program. To be brief and to the point, Hillary's agenda would be terrible news for anyone who supports space exploration and space commerce.

The items in Hillary's agenda that concern space follow:

"Hillary will enhance American leadership in space, including:

"Pursuing an ambitious 21st century Space Exploration Program, by implementing a balanced strategy of robust human spaceflight, expanded robotic spaceflight, and enhanced space science activities.

"Developing a comprehensive space-based Earth Sciences agenda, including full funding for NASA's Earth Sciences program and a space-based Climate Change Initiative that will help us secure the scientific knowledge we need to combat global warming.

"Promoting American leadership in aeronautics by reversing funding cuts to NASA's and FAA's aeronautics R&D budget."

On the surface, the Hillary Clinton space agenda appears to be long on platitudes and short on substance. But then, upon closer examination, one begins to have cause for alarm.

The phrase "a balanced strategy of robust human spaceflight, expanded robotic spaceflight, and enhanced space science activities" stands out because of the complaints that have been advanced by certain people, especially in the scientific community, that the current NASA program is "unbalanced." By that it is meant that too much money is being spent on President Bush's space exploration initiative at the expense of space science, Earth science, and aeronautics.

So, Hillary Clinton proposes to have "enhanced space science activities", "full funding for NASA's Earth Sciences program", and reverse "funding cuts to NASA's and FAA's aeronautics funding R&D budget." There are just two ways to accomplish this.