For the first time in decades, space policy is emerging as a presidential campaign issue and, political strategists say, could become a decisive factor in the race to the White House.

In the run-up to Florida's Jan. 29 primary, candidates have begun to talk about their views on the future of human space exploration. On Friday, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani stopped at Kennedy Space Center to pledge he would give NASA the money it needs to return Americans to the moon and go to Mars. On Monday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney followed suit.

"I support the NASA program, the president's vision program, which consists of a manned space mission back to the moon, as well as an ongoing mission to Mars," Romney said. But he declined to commit to more funding without more study.

Months earlier, leading Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama articulated dramatically different visions. Obama's plan to raid NASA's budget to fund his education program caused an eruption from space supporters, especially in Florida, which could lose thousands of jobs when the space shuttle retires in 2010.

As issues go, space policy can't match immigration or health care or the economy. But experts say candidates are going beyond the lip service traditionally paid to the issue. And for the first time, space policy is being linked to larger issues such as national security, global warming and U.S. competitiveness with China's growing space program.

"What's remarkable is that candidates are crafting policies and positions on space long before they have even been chosen by the parties," said Roger Launius, a space historian and curator at the Smithsonian Institution. "The last time space was an issue for presidential candidates this early in an election was in 1960."
The renewed interest is driven in part by the fact that NASA is facing its biggest crisis since the end of the Apollo era in the 1970s, with the space shuttle scheduled to retire in 2010 and the future of the next-generation Constellation program uncertain.

Four years ago, President Bush announced his vision: return American astronauts to the moon by 2020 as a prelude to going to Mars. But a lack of money, technical issues and competing visions inside NASA and the aerospace community have created growing doubts about the viability of the Constellation program.

As a result, the next president will decide the future of the agency.

Another basic force is at work: politics. Florida is a vital swing state with 27 electoral votes, and the Interstate 4 corridor is the swing region. Kennedy Space Center and the entire Space Coast, which is largely dependent on NASA-related jobs, is the eastern anchor of that corridor.

"This isn't rocket science. It is crude, but compelling, political arithmetic," wrote Dale Ketcham, director of the University of Central Florida's Space Research and Technology Institute, in a two-page presentation titled "The Keys to the Oval Office Are at Kennedy Space Center."

Ketcham, 53, a Cocoa Beach native who coordinates university research programs at KSC for NASA, drafted the presentation in March to hand out to officials in Tallahassee during Florida's annual Space Day industry lobbying event.

It says that with thousands of KSC jobs at risk when the shuttle retires, the first candidate "to speak boldly" about a comprehensive space vision that assuages these concerns will reap thousands of votes.

"All NASA centers have some problems," he wrote. "But only KSC is in the I-4 Corridor!"


First Clinton, then others

At first, there was little reaction. But soon, Brevard County and the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast began to push the document, referring to their lobbying as "the Lord's work."

The Clinton campaign was first to respond, outlining a detailed agenda in October that included "robust human spaceflight." In a nod to KSC, the statement said she would "capitalize on the expertise of the current shuttle program work force" and would not allow "a repeat of the 'brain drain' that occurred between the Apollo and shuttle missions."

Ketcham said he was not surprised that Clinton was first.

"There is nobody in the Clinton camp that does not understand the notion that electoral votes are key to getting into the White House," he said.

An aide to the Romney campaign said space debate largely has been driven by Clinton's early position. "If one candidate mentions it, the others dive into it," said the adviser, a former NASA official who would speak only on background.

Linda Weatherman, chief executive officer of the Economic Development Commission, then began inviting candidates to space round tables, hoping they would compete with one another in their commitment to space. Giuliani and Romney accepted; the group hopes former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will come this week. Only Arizona Sen. John McCain said no.

So far, though, there is scant evidence that the voting public has tuned into space policy. Three nationwide polls taken in 2005 and 2006 show most Americans are not concerned about China -- or any nation -- overtaking the U.S. in a space race. And the country is relatively content with how much money is being spent on space.

Howard McCurdy, a space historian at American University in Washington, D.C., cautions about reading too much into the candidates' promises. "While nice to hear, they are still sufficiently vague on key points like when and how much to make them unenforceable," he says.

Still, Ketcham thinks that in the general election in November, the issue will be like a baseball bat on a counter in a bar fight. "Whoever picks it up and swings it best will prevail," he says.

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Swanny Note: Dale Ketchem remembers what a depressed and Ghostland like Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral turned into after 1969 when Our Country  spent Money on War and Bombs. (Dale and I went to school together)Killing off a generation of people along with the off spring that could have born the genius we needed to get us out of this jam we are in now. With another war , one that has been nothing but a weight around our necks...killing another generation of men and women thus negating those chances of off spring...that might have been our salvation.