Much was made of the candidates positions on space exploration, which were comprised of canned speeches. For the last 8 years, the shuttle program ended, there was 1 Mars rover, & a few interplanetary probes.


All the achievements of SpaceX were funded by the commercial cargo program started many years ealier. Even then, the commercial cargo program has spent most of its life grounded due to failures. There was a test flight of a mockup of the Orion crew capsule. There were parachute tests of all the capsules, 1 abort test of Dragon 2. There were engine tests & structural test articles for the SLS.


NASA budgets have shrunk enough that any program won't materialize until many administrations later. The commercial crew program has inspired the most promising powerpoint slides of them all, but has so far fizzled from lack of funding. NASA stopped buying Soyuz flights after 2018. The way things are going with the rocket failures & lack of funding, there isn't going to be a commercial crew capability before 2020, so the space station is going to be purely run by Russia.


H-Rod is going to be looking for money to fund the free education program & the expanded medicare program. Part of it will come from NASA.

Agreed.

Everytime I hear someone complain that space exploration is a waste of money that could be use to do (fill in your favorite social topic), I usually respond with "Those rockets, facilities, supplies, hard/software, are all employing people. Isn't' that a good social program that has a side benefit of knowledge?"

-=Doug

Of course there isn't a budget for this program or its employment any more . All that went overseas to fund the wars ! What is so hard to figure out about that ? It is a matter of priorities isn't it ? I vote for the space program !