From the Earth to the Moon...Again

Well, the latest go-round on Capitol Hill has just about everyone in elective office lampooning the Orbital Space Plane to NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe's face, and since the President and an immediate circle of advisory types have been engrossed in an under-reported bout of deep thoughts regarding the future of American space flight, the general consensus among policymakers seems to be, "Spending $15 billion dollars on a fancy taxi is boring. The President needs to tell us where we're going!" The latest word from the grapevine has it that an executive decision along those lines is liable to coincide with the centennial of flight celebration on December 17. And although all bets seem to be off, the hints getting dropped all seem to point in the same general direction.

(1) The President is deeply engaged in a very expensive War on Terror, the conduct of which leaves him with neither the inclination nor the money for anything grandiose.

(2) This is probably just as well; his father's bout with grandiosity in the form of the $500 billion Space Exploration Initiative fell so resoundingly flat that we ended up locked in orbit for the next decade, doing not much.

(3) Although he may not be the biggest space enthusiast in the world, pragmatic reasons together with a general disposition towards biting off a challenge probably suffice for him to muster the executive will necessary to rouse NASA to serious action, beyond (and possibly in lieu of) the Orbital Space Plane.

(4) Mars may or may not be in the cards. My money says no for now.

(5) Nobody is really in the mood to call it quits, and after the loss of Columbia the powers that be are itching for something with some razzle-dazzle. Simply building the OSP and maintaining the International Space Station aren't going to cut it.

The consequence of these realities is that we are probably on the verge of going back to the moon. Time will tell, naturally, but neither the legislative nor the executive branch of government seems thrilled with NASA's chosen course. As a result, I find it difficult to believe that the status quo can persist for much longer.

Let us remember this key point if nothing else: President Bush is a smooth operator. A man who just barely got himself into the Oval Office, managed an unheard-of victory in the midterm elections. This same man subsequently availed himself of the opportunity to land on an aircraft carrier. In a flight suit. Looking very, very good. Seeing as how the centennial of flight is only going to come around this once, it seems inconceivable that President Bush could let such an opportunity slide by.

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