Source: The Houston Chronicle
Since his election as President, Barack Obama has barely mentioned NASA publicly. His most lengthy references came at the National Academies a year ago (see speech). But as some commentators noticed, he championed science during that speech, not the exploration of space.
In short, since becoming president he has not articulated a vision for human spaceflight: Where will we go? And when?.
Although the obvious draw is an outline of a compromise on his space budget plans, for me the lack of an articulated vision is another big reason why President Obama’s visit to Kennedy Space Center Thursday afternoon, however brief, is significant.
Perhaps the President will take the opportunity to tell the world’s space community where he actually wants astronauts to go. (Or maybe not. Here’s an Office of Science and Technology Policy summary of the speech).
To continue reading this story: http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2010/04/will_president_obama_finally_lay_out_his_vision_fo.html