Dennis E. Powell has a piece in NRO that argues that Bush may call for a new manned lunar program at the Centennial of Flight celebration this year.
I think that’s a rather optimistic guess, but one can always hope. Our space program has been moribund since the Apollo project was cancelled, the shuttle has not made space travel cheaper or more accessible, and we have no long-term goal in manned space exploration that anyone is willing to truly commit any degree of time or money to achieve.
If Bush doesn’t want to expand the NASA budget, the very least he could do is make it easier for private space companies to access orbit. Streamlining the byzantine NASA and FAA processes needed to get into even the edge of space would help X-Prize contestants as well as future companies who can advance space technology in the 21st Century.
We can only hope…