What happened? Obama’s sudden support for the rocket that will replace the shuttle as the country’s new vehicle to explore space demonstrates the surprising success of grassroots and Internet-based space efforts in affecting the course of the 2008 presidential campaign. Blogs such as Space Politics and NASA Watch, and organizations such as the Mars Society, keep a close eye on every utterance by a candidate on space policy. They instruct their audience how to contact the campaigns and even coach readers on how to get a space question inserted into a presidential debate.


Well, maybe, but explaining why Obama has reversed course is much easier than explaining how those decisions will affect his campaign. Another article from Science, published in early January, had this take: “Observers say the awkward shuffle reflects Obama’s relative inexperience in national politics.”

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