> ...are doing it to secure 'jobs' in their own districts... In 2004, the GWB administration created an initiative ("Vision for Space Exploration" = VSE, see [

> ...are doing it to secure 'jobs' in their own districts... In 2004, the GWB administration created an initiative ("Vision for Space Exploration" = VSE, see [1,2]) that substantially refocused NASA on human spaceflight. Significant money was redirected from technology research to launch vehicle development. This is (partly) visible in the dip in the gray portion of the funding strip-chart in [2] ("aeronautics and science"). It looks small, but its effect was much larger. The original VSE implementors were highly motivated, but attention wandered, after a few years the launch vehicle effort (Orion/Constellation) stalled, and the BHO administration cancelled Constellation. Outside observers wondered whether the GWB administration really cared about the VSE, or just wanted to do a favor for the large manned spaceflight centers in Houston and Florida. It is probably not a coincidence that GWB is a Texan, then-House-Majority-Leader Tom DeLay's home district abuts Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Florida was in the GWB camp in the prior election by just 537 votes. [1] https://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/aldridge_commission.html https://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/aldridge_commissio... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_for_Space_Exploration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_for_Space_Exploration