Presidential Space Policy Essay Example

Introduction

The presidential policy into space exploration is a political decision to govern the activities of scientists in space exploration. The policy implemented is also directed to protect civilians during the process of space exploration. In the United States of America, the executive arm of the government is responsible for the drafting of the space policy. The president is responsible for giving directives of the draft, which is then passed to the legislative arm of the government who pass motions for approval and the amount of funds to be invested therein. Once the Congress approves the bill, the president puts a signature on it to become a policy (law) to be adhered with (Mack et al., 2011).

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The president has the power to determine which laws should be applied under the civilian rule. Under the administration of President Reagan, The United States saw the launch of the first space shuttle in the year 1961. This remarked a universal sign of the domination of the United States as a superpower. Ever since, there have been improvements by subsequent presidents in the space policy, facilitating explorations in space. Therefore, proper presidential space policy plays an integral role to facilitate in-depth space exploration.

This paper will compare and contrast the various policies of President Ronald Reagan and the immediate former president, Barack Obama. Moreover, the similarities and difference in their issues leading to decision making will be addressed.

Comparison of space policies of the Ronald Regan and Barack Obama Administrations

Similarities

The history of America and American presidents has been characterized with the need of proving dominance in the world. This includes both President Reagan and Barack Obama. The journey to space is considered to be an idea to establish dominance. Each successful space exploration is regarded as an idea of the strength of the United States of America. For instance, the move by President Obama to postpone the development of Constellation program was not considered to be viable as that meant the United States would have to depend on Russian whenever they were to access the International Space Station (Sadeh, 2009). However, both presidents welcomed collaborations in the development of effective space policies. Russia has remained to be a significant ally of the United States in matters of space exploration, such that, it has been included in renowned space exploration decisions. The Space Station Freedom is one move that brought the much-needed success in space exploration by either of the countries and the world in general. The result has been seen in the development of proper space policies favoring not only the United States but the world at large. For instance, President Reagan has been reported to concur with the early president Nixon, those benefits from proper space exploration should be enjoyed by people from all over the world.

Differences

As much as President Ronald Reagan supported the development of the space shuttle and other activities for space exploration, his policies and decisions were characterized by failure to a large extent. One such proposal by him was the development of a space station for military purposes. The space station was to be used to put down intercontinental missiles invading the United States territory (Stares, 1985). However, this great idea did not come to pass during his time in power. Moreover, Reagan failed to financially back the development of the space shuttle by intervening with the Congress to allow sufficient budget allocation to support development and research into space. Much of Reagan's space exploration talking point was based on military exploration to a larger extent. Reagan was not known to regard space explorations programs as one of the priority items throughout his presidency. For instance, greater withdrawal from space missions was characterized by canceling a probe into the solar initially planned to take place. From the cancellation of the probe, there were fears that increase support withdrawal from his administration will follow suit. Reagan was of the ideas of the development of a space station which will be permanently manned to facilitate exploration.

Since joining office, President Obama has continued to offer support in NASA operations regarding financial resources and technological power for effective space missions. For instance, he promised a policy to increase the funding of NASA by 6 billion dollars (Sadeh, 2009). This amount of increase has never been experienced in the history of United States space programs, more specifically under the President Reagan administration. Obama's vision was to facilitate the first-ever Mars orbit by the US space crew through the steps implemented and laid forth during his administration. Instead of canceling the space programs, Obama worked to revive the programs canceled by his predecessors, for instance, the Space Shuttle program. Obama policy was based on extensive findings by the space flights committee. The space policy outlined by President Obama is seen to be more specific and focused in nature than President Reagan's policy which may be considered to be mere rhetoric. In general, President Obama issues and policies about space exploration are seen to be characterized with small incremental successes over time (Brosnan, 2015).

References

Brosnan, I. (2015). An analysis of the relative success of applicants to the new STEM Presidential Management Fellowship and the NASA context. Space Policy, 34, 47-49. doi: 10.1016/j.spacepol.2015.09.001

Mack, W., DeRouen, K., & Lanoue, D. (2011). Foreign Policy Votes and Presidential Support in Congress. Foreign Policy Analysis, 9(1), 79-102. doi: 10.1111/j.1743-8594.2011.00166.x

Sadeh, E. (2009). Space policy challenges facing the Barack Obama administration. Space Policy, 25(2), 109-116. doi: 10.1016/j.spacepol.2009.02.003

Stares, P. (1985). Militarization of space. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.