Putting aside the political implications of reliance on a Putin led Russia, the fact that the US program has devolved to this level is a national embarrassment. I have little hope President Obama will reverse this trend, in fact I expect him to further reduce NASA's budget. Obama's space policy has not been well articulated. I was able to find few references all related to a policy statement now a year old prior to the start of the primaries. Obama will likely slow walk any efforts to return to the moon while spending just enough to acquire a new launch vehicle to again provide the US with the ability to launch humans into Earth orbit.
Many will argue as they have for decades that space is a tertiary priority relative to pressing terrestrial needs. Those arguments will be louder now than ever. I reject those arguments. Spending on space symbolizes world leadership in technology and culture. Many perhaps most will not be bothered when the next humans to step on the Moon are Chinese, Indian or Japanese, I will be.
I would strongly support efforts to privatize more of our space program. Our terrestrial challenges will never be perfected, our leadership in space can be retained (in conjunction with our allies) for minimal investment. Unfortunately there appear few willing to agitate for such an investment.
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