The Candidates and Space Exploration

Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy noted that both Barack Obama and John McCain recently made statements regarding the future of American space exploration.  They both pay some lip service to continuing a robust space program, though McCain’s statement is a bit misleading (or ignorant?) about the upcoming gap between the space shuttle ending in 2010 and Constellation (which is set to launch for the first time in 2015).  I suggest heading over there and reading the whole post, it’s quite informative.  Plait sums up:

So take whatever either man says with a few moles of salt. However, given McCain’s tack to the right and pandering to the religious zealots on so many issues, I don’t expect him to be a candidate who is on the side of science. That enough is sufficient for me not to vote for him — unless he makes some very solid statements very soon (and given his flip-flops on this and his stance on about fifty other things, it’s pretty unlikely I’d vote for him anyway). Obama, on the other hand, has clearly stated his opposition to what has happened to science over the past eight years, and that gives me hope.