Mayor Pete Wanted To Be Astronaut Pete
58 years ago, John Glenn became the first American launched into orbit. As a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. That didn’t happen, but I continue to be inspired by the brave men and women of our space program who push the limits of our imagination. pic.twitter.com/UpOFSTvSFO
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) February 20, 2020
Well, at the risk of sounding a bit sarcastic, the price of crewed orbital flights are falling so there’s no real reason why he can’t do it now!
…with campaign funds?
That’s not impossible, just very, very unlikely. If a candidate made spaceflight a big part of his platform, then it might be legal to use campaign funds for a trip to orbit. That would be promoting and advertising the candidate’s agenda. But I can not imagine any candidate making space such a big part of their campaign.
Like just about everyone hereabouts, I imagine.
Actually, no. I wanted to be someone involved with space exploration since I was a kid. But the NASA image of astronauts as Norman Rockwell, mainstream, “clean Marines” really discouraged me. I did not want grow up to be someone like that.
Right, and Hillary wanted to be a Marine.
Marine JAG officer, maybe.
So is that the limit of his proposed space policy? What is his position on NASA’s current programs? On commercial activities in space?
I can’t find anything about “space” or “NASA” on his campaign website.
Given the Florida Primary is about a month away you will start hearing all them talk about how the “love” NASA and try to take pictures that make them look like President Kennedy. It happens every election, but few will commit to anything more, again as it is every election.
Possibly sooner. I’d expect this to come up in a state with a very close race (where the 1% or so of the voters who care enough might make a difference) and where aerospace is a significant part of the economy. I don’t expect anything about space to come up more than once, and the candidates would save it for a time when it would have the most impact. That could be super Tuesday (the third), with primaries in Alabama and Colorado, or the 17th with the Florida primary. Probably the 17th, since too many other things are happening on super Tuesday. (I’m not counting Texas or California; they have a stake in what NASA does, but I think they are too big and that would dilute the impact.)
In related news, Mr. Trump was in Colorado Springs yesterday, and the city chamber of commerce was out in force. They _really_ want the Space Force to stay in town. Apparently a few other places like Huntsville are still lobbying over that.
Mr. Buttigieg (or possibly one of his staff) did remember the anniversary of Mr. Glenn’s flight. I hate to admit it, but that’s more than I did. But that may be clutching at straws when if comes to predicting a politician’s interest… I wonder if anyone will say anything around April 11. As far as I can tell, the 50th anniversary of Apollo 12 past without any notice. Apollo 13 might be different.