Giuliani Wants Funding Increase For NASA

Republican Presidential candidate has announced his intention to seek a funding increase for NASA if elected President. His remarks come in a guest column published in Florida Today:

"We will maintain America's technological advantage in space. We will send Americans back to the moon and onto the next great frontier in human space exploration: Mars.

"We will support the Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems Program to stimulate important private entrepreneurial efforts in spaceflight.

"We will expand private-sector access to Cape Canaveral launch pads. To help prepare astronauts for longer stays in space, we will fund the Space Life Sciences Lab.

"NASA currently receives less than 1 percent of the federal budget -- six-tenths of 1 percent, to be more exact. An increase would do wonders without affecting 99 percent of the federal budget. That's the fiscally conservative approach: getting a good return on your dollar."

Giuliani is fighting for his political life in Florida right now. Polls in the state show him continuing to slide while McCain and Romney make gains. In the latest polling data, he is now fourth, behind McCain and Romney (virtually tied) and Huckabee.

Perhaps his remarks are an effort to drum up support along the Space Coast, but he seemed genuinely concerned about the time it will take to bring Orion online after the space shuttle retires. At a roundtable visit to Cape Canaveral, he voiced conern for the lag and, at the time, called it unacceptable. Today's statements represent his followup to that visit and a first look at a possible Giuliani space policy.

If nothing else, these are words that supporters of space exploration rarely hear from a Presidential candidate and so should be welcome.

Giuliani has a visit scheduled today, Jan. 27, at Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach.

Coincidentally. this is the 41-year anniversary of the tragic Apollo 1 fire.

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080126/COLUMNISTS0205/801260311/1138/OPINION