COMMENTARY | According to Florida Today, former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney journeyed to Florida's space coast and delivered a speech that was less visionary than that of his rival New Gingrich. But Romney does enjoy the endorsement of a group of aerospace giants.
While laying out four principles that his space policy would follow, Romney declined to state what his space policy or goals would be. He reiterated his desire for a committee to experts from across NASA, the military, the commercial sector, and academic to determine what that policy might be. He did not reiterate his opposition to a moon colony, however.
The Romney campaign released a letter of endorsement that decried the state of the space program under President Barack Obama and also suggested Romney would be the candidate best positioned to fix it.
The people signing the letter included former NASA administrator Mike Griffin, Apollo moonwalker Gene Cernan, shuttle era astronaut Bob Crippen, space tourism entrepreneur Eric Anderson and former space officials for various Republican administrations Scott Pace, Mark Albrecht and Peter Marquez, and William Martel, an Associate Professor of International Security Studies at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. According to Marcia Smith at Space Policy Online, Scott Pace heads Romney's space advisory team.
The group of aerospace heavyweights supporting Romney seems to offer a contradiction. While Romney has ridiculed the idea of a moon base or colony as proposed by Gingrich, a number of his advisers have been involved in return to the moon efforts, which are understood to involve establishing a moon base or colony.
Albrecht was the executive secretary of the National Space Council under President George H.W. Bush charged with trying to keep the Space Exploration Initiative, which included a lunar base, on track. Griffin was NASA administrator charged with running the canceled Constellation program, which also included a lunar base.
Romney has inoculated himself against the charge of being anti-space by having a group of aerospace heavy hitters endorse him. Also, whatever his advisers come up with is going to be less "grandiose" that Gingrich's proposal, even if -- as one might suspect -- it includes a lunar base. The maneuver is as adroit as it is cynical. Romney does not have to offer his own vision that can be sniped at. But he does offer a group of advisers that hint at a vision to come.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.
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