In article ,
Jonathan wrote:
Almost certainly he is blessing -- perhaps reluctantly, given how feeble
his support has been at budget time -- decisions reached by others.

...it's hard not to place the responsibility on the
President. I think he provided the overall goal, and the details
are left to others.

Sorry, I just can't buy that. Not when he's so visibly unenthusiastic
about it: he hardly ever mentions it in speeches, and he's repeatedly
failed to request even the modest funding levels he originally promised.
No, this is not his pet project -- it's something he was reluctantly
talked into, and so he gives it a bare minimum of support when his arm is
twisted hard enough, and ignores it otherwise.

I haven't followed VSE's politics in detail, but *that* much is just
falling-down obvious.

...NASA scores poorly on almost every
measure of political importance, nowadays; it cannot reasonably expect
much of his attention.

NASA doesn't deserve more than a passing interest by our
political leadership! Why is that?

Because it's a minor agency, with a minor budget and a minor workforce,
that does nothing very strongly connected with any major policy goal,
domestic or foreign. Once NASA was the leading edge of the country's
future, with a budget to match... but that was forty years ago.

And how can this sad situation be changed?

Almost certainly it can't be. Space isn't politically important, and
never has been. The political support for NASA's brief surge of glory in
the 60s came from Cold War politics and gross insolence by the Soviets :-),
not a belief that it was important to invest in the country's long-term
future. "There's progress, and then there's Congress."

But space solar power?

Too uncertain and too long-term. If you're going to sink a lot of money
into an energy initiative, there are Earthbound approaches that look more
attractive. Personally, I agree that powersats are better in the long
run, but we're talking about what sells politically, not what's better.
Politicians and voters both have short planning horizons.
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