As was blogged earlier today, Senator Obama gave a major speech on education. One thing worth noting is how he plans to pay for them - by delaying NASA's constellation. This has raised some troubling questions, at least for any supporter of manned spaceflight. Come over to the other side, and you'll see what I mean.
Now, before I begin, I want to make very clear - as of right now, I am not supporting anyone for the Democratic presidential nomination. So this isn't about "My candidate is better than yours." This is solely about what Senator Obama wants to do with manned spaceflight.
Until today, Senator Obama has not really talked about what he wants to do with Nasa (at least not to my knowledge, and I tend to keep up on these things preety well) and what he wants to do with manned spaceflight.
However, in the plan released today, he talks about how its the 50th anniversary of the flight of Sputnik, and how this demonstrated a need for good science and math education. However, in the same plan, he proposes to fund part of his educational program by delaying the Constellation program - thats the replacement vehicle of the space shuttle - by 5 years. Already, Constellation is facing major delays - it won't fly before 2014, and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't fly until 2015, or 2016. And if we add another 5 years, it won't fly until 2020 at the earliest.
If thats the case, and Nasa remains committed to retiring the Space Shuttle in 2010, that means that potentially there will be a 10 year gap of manned spaceflight.
This brings us to the main point - what would an Obama administration's position be on manned spaceflight - both in Nasa, and also in the private sector? Project Constellation, the current plan, is full of problems, so much so that I would seriously recommend starting over with a new plan (ideally one that embraces the NewSpace industry). And that may be the Senator's position, but he hasn't yet fully fleshed it out yet. The other alternative is that perhaps he is actively trying to get rid of manned spaceflight. All of this being discussed over at spacepolitics.com, looking at it from all potential angles, and anyone can join in.
So, Senator, thats my question - what is your plan/vision for manned spaceflight, both within Nasa, and outside?
Edit - I meant to add, but forgot to, there will be a Space Revolution News tomorrow - it will include any major comments that the candidates have made about Spaceflight. Obama is the only one who hasn't at least talked about it a little bit.