...if Jack Kennedy had? That's an intriguing question that Dwayne Day is asking in today's issue of The Space Review. Unfortunately, the data isn't yet available.

And I'm continually amused by Democrat space supporters who still buy into the Camelot myth, and think that we'd be on Mars long ago had only Oswald (or whoever they may think actually did the deed) missed, when he clearly wasn't that big on space. In fact, based on the speech cited in Dr. Day's article, he would have been solidly behind the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which basically declares space off limits, at least philosophically, to exploitation and settlement, through its ban on claims of sovereignty.

Saying Kennedy was a big advocate of space is like saying Bush is a big advocate for perscription medicine coverage. They certainly both pushed the endeavors, but neither were much of a supporter until the issue became a political advantage.

Somebody call Ollie Stone. I think we've found yet another reason that someone wanted Kennedy dead. I've always thought those guys on the grassy knoll looked like NASA operatives.

I think not, mostly because Kennedy had no real committment to spaceflight per se, but was looking to compete in an arena in which we could confront the Soviets and win. A lot of JFK retrospective misses the concept that the Kennedys saw US-USSR confrontation in "grudgematch" terms; you hit one of mine, I'm gonna hit one of yours.

I elaborate on the real meaning of Apollo, and its connection to the end of the Cold War in an article written over 10 years ago, here:

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/debates/nasa-sdi.html#victory

Exactly what I was thinking K.

Nasa and their damn "big velcro" cronies!

I think a Gemini lunar landing is one of the possibilities, in which case the manned space program could have been shut down by the end of FY 1966.