Fox News on January 25, 2012, reported that GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich is unveiling a dramatic new vision for America’s space program, which he promises to implement should he become president. Excerpts below:
“By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon,” Gingrich vowed at a campaign stop on Florida’s space coast. “And it will be American.”
The former speaker went even further, calling for a significant increase in the number of trips into orbit.
“We need to figure out how to do five or eight launches a day, not just one,” he insisted. “If we’re going to get to the moon permanently, we have to do this. Does that mean I’m a visionary? You betcha.”
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“I will as president, encourage the introduction of the Northwest Ordinance for space to put a marker down that we want Americans to think boldly about the future and we want Americans to go out and study hard and work hard and together we’re going to unleash the American people to build the country we love.”
On the Northwest Ordinance Gingrich said:
“At one point early in my career I introduced the Northwest Ordinance in Space,” the Republican presidential candidate told thousands of voters on Florida’s Space Coast. Under Gingrich’s proposal, once there were “13,000 Americans living on the moon, they [could] petition to become a state.”
Comment: It is important for further space exploration that an American moon colony is established. The Obama administration has cancelled the plans for an American moon colony presented by earlier administrations. This is a dangerous mistake.
