More Florida Space Debate

In the CNN GOP presidential debate last night, space policy came up again. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich restated their positions, while Rick Santorum and Ron Paul essentially said the country couldn't afford a huge new project like building a lunar base just now.

Romney also tried to use Gingrich's proposal to build an American lunar base by 2020 as a way to suggest Gingrich lacks sound, practical judgment. Gingrich countered by comparing his proposal with John Kennedy's call to put a man on the Moon within the decade. Whatever the political realities of this year turn out to be, the technological case is clear. Given national priority, the U. S. is far closer to being able to meet Gingrich's goal now than it was to being able to go to the Moon when Kennedy stood before Congress in May, 1961.