Politics
Pace is the chair of Mitt Romney's Space Policy Advisory Group. Pace wrote that Romney is the only 2012 presidential candidate with "the leadership, management skill, and commitment to American exceptionalism" to restore "the U.S. space program to greatness." Pace has stated that the 2020 date Newt Gingrich suggested for a lunar base was feasible when it was proposed in 2005, but it is no longer. Pace said a return to the moon is doable, but it is hard to figure out when NASA could achieve this.
It is not clear that NASA will ever send another manned rocket into space, according to Pace. "It may be one where NASA simply buys commercial launch services, or it may be that NASA decides that it really does need to have a government-owned and operated vehicle. You know, the existence of commercial airline services does not mean we don't have military cargo transports. We have both. And we use each as appropriate."
He was appointed as a NASA administrator by George W. Bush and supported Bush's plan to return to the moon. He has been diappointed that President Barack Obama has cancelled those plans. Pace has stated, "Space leadership is highly symbolic of national capabilities and international influence, and a decline in space leadership will be seen as symbolic of a relative decline in U.S. power and influence."
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