Space

DATE=01/15/04

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

NAME=BUSH SPACE PLANS

NUMBER=6-130220

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=Washington

CONTENT=

INTRO: President Bush's announcement of a new space exploration initiative by this country that will land astronauts on the moon and later Mars is drawing a good deal of comment. Most papers are pleased with the announcement, but skeptical as to how the country will pay for it. V-O-A's ___________ joins us now with a sampling in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: Speaking from NASA headquarters in front of a huge mural of a U-S astronaut planting the U-S flag on the moon, the president mapped out an ambitious new program for the next several decades. Some papers are pleased but others say it is an election year tactic to gain votes. The Washington Times captures the excitement of the announcement this way.

VOICE: The journey outward begins with an instinct, a desire. A longing to look beyond the horizon. . A resolve to reach into the starry sky. . President Bush [has given] that dream definition and direction with a . courageous vision and a worthy set of goals that Congress should give full consideration.

TEXT: However, Hawaii's Honolulu Advertiser sees the proposal very differently.

VOICE: We understand the importance of a renewed national commitment to the exploration of space .

/// OPT /// The U-S manned space program, without a clear purpose for three decades, now struggles, a year after the loss of seven astronauts aboard the Columbia, with aging and outdated space shuttles, a leaky international space station and stale ideas. /// END OPT ///

But President Bush's . announcement . bears all the unpleasant earmarks of a candidate groping for reasons why voters should give him a second term. It smacks of [sounds like] a campaign promise that will find the back burner [be "consigned to rapid oblivion"] by December.

TEXT: It isn't campaign politics so much as the cost of the Bush space program that is worrying The New York Times.

VOICE: Critics will no doubt accuse President Bush of fiscal folly for proposing a grandiose plan for space exploration at a time when the nation faces onerous deficits and insufficient money to meet costly obligations on planet Earth. . What [he] has really done is promise the moon literally while leaving future presidents and Congresses to figure out how to pay [the] .bills.

TEXT: Georgia's Augusta Chronicle headlines its commentary "Mars plan unreal" and then goes on to say:

VOICE: [The president's] Kennedyesque vision . coming on the heels of the magnificent pictures being sent back from Mars by the unmanned rover mission is sure to stir the patriotic juices of Americans excited by space exploration -- and that includes nearly all of us. But most of us will also conclude this is simply not a sensible time to embark on an ambitious, costly space program.

TEXT: Michigan's Detroit News calls the plan "visionary" but complains ".the country can't afford it right now." Meanwhile, back in the nation's capital, The Washington Post questions the scientific benefits of human space travel.

VOICE: More serious than the price . is the absence of clear arguments for the project. The president argued that ". human thirst for knowledge cannot be satisfied with even the most vivid pictures." But the need for space travel just for space travel's sake is questionable. There must be concrete scientific reasons.[for] goals that can be achieved only by sending human beings to the moon..

TEXT: But Florida's Orlando Sentinel says Mr. Bush's proposal could yield long-term benefits.

VOICE: [The] proposal . could revitalize the . space program and deliver enormous technological and scientific benefits. But the president, Congress and NASA will need to set clear priorities and stick with them to make this bold vision possible. . But it would be a mistake to look at the cost without considering the benefits.

TEXT: With that comment from Florida's Orlando Sentinel, we conclude this sampling of editorial reaction to President Bush's call for a new space exploration program.

NEB/ANG/KL