Is Bush keen to return to outer space?

By RUPERT CORNWELL


President George Bush and his advisers want to announce a big, eye-catching initiative for the final year of his first term - which could be man's return to the moon on a permanent basis.

Aware that Mr Bush's image is of a leader not afraid of bold decisions, his White House handlers see a space project as a perfect fit for an election year.

For months now a task force led by the Vice-President Dick Cheney has been examining the possibilities. An announcement could come in January's State of the Union speech, or even on December 17 when Mr Bush will speak at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to mark the centenary of the first powered flight by the Wright brothers.

Other bold ideas being canvassed are a "war on disease" or a global initiative on hunger. But space is the most appealing field - not least because of the re-examination of the programme of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration already under way, after the loss of the Columbia shuttle in February.

One possibility is a permanent US base on the moon. Another is the revival of the old dream of a human flight to Mars; a third is an expansion of the mission of the existing international space station.

But even this spendthrift administration will have to pay heed to financial realities. Back in 1989, the first President Bush used the 20th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon to propose a human exploration of the solar system. But that vision quickly died when NASA came up with a budget-busting US$400 billion plan.

With the federal budget deficit running at $500 billion or more, the constraints today are even tighter. The last occasion when a major new space programme succeeded was 20 years ago, when President Reagan unveiled plans for a permanent space station in his January 1984 State of the Union address.


- INDEPENDENT