The result of the presidential race 2012 has no impact on the future direction of American spaceflight and exploration.
President Barack Obama's endless efforts to support NASA with space exploration will continue to be on the same track even if Mitt Romney wins the elections. "There are unlikely, as a result of the election, to be seismic changes," said space policy expert John Logsdon, a professor emeritus at George Washington University.
NASA is developing a huge rocket and a crew capsule to get astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 under The Obama Administration. It is expected to enter the surrounding areas of Mars by mid-2030s. To achieve the set goals the agency is developing a rocket called Space Launch System and crew capsule called Orion. It is expected to launch its first crew by 2021.
NASA has spent nearly $1.4 billion in the past two years to develop the crewed vehicles as the United States is still dependant on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to provide the orbital tour. NASA is focused to have at least two crewed commercial spaceships by 2017. NASA has also set the budget of $17.7 billion for 2013 and considering the nation's debt issues its unlikely to go beyond.
Romney's campaign released an eight-page detailed space policy paper which ensured the nation will remain the world leader in space exploration and space capabilities. Specifics are likely to be drawn after the elections.
"He will bring together all the stakeholders - from NASA, from the Air Force, from our leading universities, and from commercial enterprises - to set goals, identify missions, and define a pathway forward that is guided, coherent, and worthy of our great nation," the Romney policy paper reads.
He also confirmed that the 2013 federal budget is not likely to go up and there wouldn't be much difference between the two administrations. Physicist Lawrence Krauss, director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University said "I suspect the realities of the budget would mean that there isn't going to be a lot of difference between them."
