During a town hall meeting in Kalamazoo, Mich., Mitt Romney was asked about the state of the U.S. space program. The answer Romney gave has some people speculating about his commitment to space exploration.
But if one factors in some of the statements made by Romney space advisers and outside experts, Romney's response may be more nuanced.
Romney opines about a space race with China
According to Politico, Romney suggested it wouldn't matter if China landed an astronaut on the moon before the U.S. could return there. He also wondered what Americans would do on the moon once they got there.
What does Romney's aerospace brain trust have to say about racing China to the moon?
In a 2008 interview with the Houston Chronicle, then-NASA administrator and current Romney aerospace adviser Mike Griffin expressed opposition to a space race with China. Griffin noted the Apollo era space race elicited a great deal of funding and activity that collapsed when the race had been won by Apollo 11. He preferred a steady level of funding that could be used to achieve a number of goals, including a return to the moon, regardless of what the Chinese do or do not do.
Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute and another Romney space adviser, gave a speech in May with two observations. He suggested it was not beneficial to pursue large-scale space cooperation with China at this time. He also suggested it mattered less to the standing of the U.S. what China did in space than what America did or did not do in space. That also suggests Pace is opposed to racing China to the moon since Chinese efforts would pace American efforts.
What do some independent experts have to say?
Paul Spudis, a space commentator and a planetary scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, echoed Pace's observation. If the Chinese were established on the moon, without Americans and astronauts from other Western countries there as well, China would be able to call the shots about the exploration and economic development of the moon, to the detriment of the West.
Robert Bigelow, CEO of Bigelow Aerospace, warned recently that China could actually "own" the moon, garnering scientific and financial benefit, as well as international prestige.
Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin suggested the U.S. should ignore the moon and Chinese efforts toward it and concentrate on Mars.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.
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