John Kelly: When Obama talks space, we should listen

From Florida Today: John Kelly: When Obama talks space, we should listen
Presidents don't talk often about the space program.

It might seem like they do because, when the leader of the free world weighs in on something interesting like space exploration, everyone tends to pay attention.

During the past few days, President Barack Obama talked about the space program on multiple occasions and it seems worthwhile to share exactly what he's saying about an endeavor so critical to the future of our community.

The first instance was very locally relevant, focused upon the joint public and private effort to put Boeing into one of the orbiter processing facilities that long housed one of NASA's space shuttles orbiters. Boeing will make the facility home base for its new private crew taxi and the creation of some 400-500 jobs long term.

"The next era of space exploration won't wait, and so we can't wait for Congress to do its job and give our space program the funding it needs," President Barack Obama said in a statement that took direct aim at the Republican leadership in Congress on an issue he knows is important in a key battleground state in next year's election.

"That's why my administration will be pressing forward, in partnership with Space Florida and the private sector, to create jobs and make sure America continues to lead the world in exploration and discovery," the statement went on.

The key point to draw from this is that the president appears to be continually reminding people that he has put the space program on a privatization track, one that Republicans might typically embrace.

The big thing to remember about the Boeing jobs that were promised this week and hundreds of others tied to similar private space projects is this: They all depend upon funding from Congress that has been slow in coming.

The second space tie-in with the White House this week happened in Washington.

The crew of the last space shuttle mission visited the White House earlier this week and Obama sat for an interview with Houston television station KTRK. The conversation dealt with the space program and the loss of thousands of jobs in Texas.