WASHINGTON – A draft of the Democratic Party’s 2020 platform suggests that an administration led by Joe Biden would make few major changes to NASA’s programs, but does not explicitly endorse a human return to the Moon in 2024.
An 80-page draft of the party’s 2020 platform, distributed to party officials this week for review, includes a paragraph on space policy, located at the end of a section on “Investing in Job Creation Engines” that Analyzes infrastructure improvements, support for small businesses and agriculture, and investing in scientific research.
“Democrats continue to support the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and are committed to continuing exploration and discovery of space,” says the platform. “We believe in continuing the spirit of discovery that has fueled NASA’s human space exploration, in addition to its scientific and medical research, technological innovation, and educational mission that enables us to better understand our own planet and place in the universe.”
The platform supports NASA’s continued plans for a human return to the moon and later missions to Mars, but without a specific date, unlike NASA’s current direction to return humans to the moon in late 2024. “We support NASA’s work to return Americans to the moon and go further to Mars, taking the next step to explore our solar system,” he says.
In addition to human space exploration, the platform supports the continued operation of the International Space Station, as well as the “strengthening” of Earth observation missions at both NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “to better understand how climate change is affecting our planet. “
The language of the platform suggests that a Biden administration would not seek major changes at NASA, such as ending the Artemis program. “NASA supporters can breathe a sigh of relief when they read the draft of the Democratic platform,” said John Logsdon, professor emeritus at the George Washington University Space Policy Institute. Spacenews.
“There are no suggestions of major changes to NASA’s direction or programs, with the welcome exception that they apparently fall behind the unrealistic deadline of 2024 for the first Americans to return to the moon,” he said. “This is generally very supportive of the nation’s space efforts.”
The platform of the party is not yet final. The draft version released this week will be debated by a platform committee, which can modify it before it is formally approved at next month’s convention.
While the party platform is not a binding document, it does provide insight into the policies that Biden, the party’s presumptive candidate for president, would follow if elected. Space was not an issue during the nomination race, and his campaign did not answer a short set of questions from Spacenews on space issues last September or February. Biden did not play a public role in space policy either during his long term in the Senate or for eight years as Vice President of President Barack Obama.
In a call to reporters in May, shortly before the launch of the SpaceX Demo-2 commercial crew organized by the Biden campaign, former Senator Bill Nelson (Florida) said Biden helped secure support for what would become the commercial crew program. “He was an important part of the decision making that went into this,” he said on the call.
In that same call, Charles Bolden, who served as NASA administrator during the Obama administration, said he expected a Biden administration to continue the Artemis program for human lunar exploration. “I am hopeful that this administration and the next will continue to work with Congress to obtain the necessary funds to maintain the Artemis program,” he said.
Biden, in a statement after the launch of Demo-2, called the mission “the culmination of the work started years ago, and that President Obama and I fought hard to ensure that it became a reality.” Initial funding for the commercial crew program, he noted, was part of the 2009 stimulus bill.
“As President, I look forward to advancing the United States’ commitment to seek space exploration and uncover scientific discoveries that inspire a new generation of dreamers to look to the sky and imagine all that our future may hold,” he said in that statement, which did not offer other details on space policy.
