George W. Bush's First Term As President of The United States - Science and Technology

Science and Technology

In the wake of the Columbia space shuttle disaster on January 14, 2004, Bush announced a major re-direction for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Known as the Vision for Space Exploration, the policy called for the completion of the International Space Station by 2010 and the retirement of the space shuttle, while developing a new spacecraft called the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) under the title Project Constellation. The CEV would be used to return American astronauts to the Moon by 2018.

The Bush administration implemented a major change in United States foreign policy by withdrawing its participation in the 1998 Kyoto Protocol on world climate change. The Bush administration during this period has been accused of censoring or manipulating scientific research to suit various political agendas, most notably in the areas of climate change and the economic development of environmentally sensitive locations. In January 2006, lead NASA climate scientist Dr James E Hansen and several other career scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies accused appointee George Deutsch of forbidding them from publicly discussing research on global warming risks. The Union of Concerned Scientists published a report, Scientific Integrity in Policymaking, in March 2004 that criticized the unprecedented "manipulation, suppression, and misrepresentation of science by the Bush administration."

Much talk had circulated during Bush's first eight months in office over how to handle the stem-cell research debate. On August 8, 2001, in a televised address to the nation from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush announced that the federal government would provide funding, but only for research that used human embryos which had already been destroyed.