The Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appears to be in favour of continuing to support the NASA Artemis program, which hopes to return US astronauts to the surface of the Moon.
An 80-page draft of the Democratic Party’s 2020 platform was distributed to party officials for review this week. Although it does not outline an exhaustive proposed space policy, it does appear to suggest a Biden-led government would continue to support NASA’s push to return US astronauts to the lunar surface.
“Democrats continue to support the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and are committed to continuing space exploration and discovery,” states the draft document. “We support NASA’s work to return Americans to the moon and go beyond to Mars, taking the next step in exploring our solar system.”
Despite seemingly supporting the agency’s Artemis program, the draft avoids the inclusion of the Trump administration’s ambitious goal of landing the next man and the first woman on the surface of the Moon by 2024. The timeline has been seen by many in the industry as not only ambitious but borderline unrealistic without a significant boost in funding.
The draft Democratic platform document will now be debated by a platform committee. The committee has the prerogative to amend the document before it is formally approved during next month’s Democratic party convention. As a result, concrete Democratic support for the Artemis program is yet to be determined.
