Democratic Party Platform Virtually Silent on Space

Although some complained about the Republican Party’s two-paragraph discussion of space program priorities in its 2012 platform, at least the topic got two paragraphs.  The Democratic Party platform, released yesterday, has a single sentence on NASA.

In a section entitled “Out-Innovating the Rest of the World,” the platform states “President Obama has charted a new mission for NASA to lead us to a future that builds on America’s legacy of innovation and exploration.”

Granted, much more is known about President Obama’s space policy after nearly four years in office, but the platform is a 70 page document laying out what the President will do if he is reelected.  The lack of attention to the space program suggests that he plans no major changes from his current policy, or that space is not viewed as an important issue in the campaign, or both.

The President did respond to a question about the space program posed by ScienceDebate.org to both presidential candidates and, indeed, it broke no new ground either.

The Republican Party platform offered two paragraphs about the space program that were focused on NASA, not the space program as a whole.  Its main message was a call for American preeminence in space.   The Space Frontier Foundation criticized the document for omitting any reference to the growing role of entrepreneurial companies in the space program.