President Bush is planning a speech in the next month or two addressing the new space policy (probably after the Aldridge Commission reports in early June).
Sources said Bush has been briefed on the hearings held by the commission and is awaiting its report to help frame his forthcoming remarks. Despite the approaching presidential election, the speech, which will reiterate Bush’s call for advanced human exploration of space, will not necessarily be made “in a political context.”
But you can bet it will be interpreted that way by people who don’t know any better.
Sources said although there has not been widespread support for the space plan since its debut, the president has felt no need to rush to make additional public comments. Bush has remained “highly enthusiastic” about his space proposal and his lack of additional mentions of the idea should not be taken as a cooling of interest, they said.
Suspicions were rife when he put “exclusive” next to it, when most of the HLV news is already out there on other sites, but the way the meeting was portrayed is simply badly sourced. It’s rare for NASA to diss a story as much as this, but you pay for false reporting.