I posted this info on CE a few days ago but here are more details:

Our view: Hillary goes cosmic

Clinton is only candidate to stake out strong pro-space ground

If Space Coast residents are looking for a presidential candidate who promises to rev up America's space program, one may have just emerged:

Hillary Clinton.

The leading Democratic contender became the first -- and only -- White House hopeful to stake out a strong pro-space position in a major policy statement last week marking the 50th anniversary of Sputnik.

In doing so, she focused needed attention on the nation's technological and educational foundations and the strides that must be taken for our nation to retain global leadership in science and cosmic exploration.

This is no small matter, with the U.S. facing increasing orbital competition from countries such as China, and with it serious national security concerns about whether America will cede the high ground it has dominated for a half-century.

In the statement, Clinton said "enhancing American leadership in space through investments in exploration, earth sciences, and aeronautics research" would be among her top scientific priorities.

She cited these details on her Web site:

# Pursuing an ambitious 21st-century strategy that includes robust human spaceflight and expanded robotic missions.

# Full funding for NASA's Earth sciences program, with special emphasis on global warming.

# Promoting American leadership in aeronautics by reversing funding cuts to NASA's aeronautics research and development budget.

Importantly, Clinton says she would speed the development, testing and launch of the new manned Orion moonship and Ares rocket fleet that will replace the shuttles, but won't start flying until 2015.

She also says she would "capitalize on the expertise of the current shuttle program workforce" and "not allow a repeat of the brain drain" that occurred between the Apollo program's end and start of the shuttle.

Both of those points are critical to Florida and the Space Coast, which will lose 3,000 to 5,000 jobs at Kennedy Space Center when the shuttles are retired in 2010. The economic hit could be $1 billion.

There's no way to know if Clinton would actually follow this course, or if it's just another talking point that will disappear like so much cosmic dust.

There's also no way to know how budgetary pressures would influence her NASA decisions.

For instance, in an interview with the New York Times, she indicated that utilizing NASA to combat global warming could be more important than meeting the agency's $230 million goal of returning astronauts to the moon by 2020.(I agree!)

Travel to the moon or Mars "excites people, but I am more focused on nearer-term goals I think are achievable," she told the Times.

Still, Clinton's position puts her far ahead ahead of her Democratic or Republican rivals, who have ignored the issue despite its importance to the nation's scientific and technological future.

Hopefully, Clinton's stance will cause more candidates to come forward with their ideas.

That's particularly necessary in the key battleground state of Florida, which has so much to gain or lose from the choices the next president makes about space.