As I noted the other day the Obama campaign released a new education plan that included a little something extra at the end, the announcement that it would ‘delay’ funding for NASA’s Constellation program. This program would create a new human spaceflight vehicle to replace the soon to be retired space shuttle and would lead to manned exploration of the Moon and one day Mars. Without it America will be without the ability to send humans to space without the assistance of Russia and our ability to stay competitive edge over Russa, China and India in a race to the moon would be lost.

Now the issue is hitting the campaign trail and the Internet. So where does Obama’s main rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, stand on the issue? Clinton spokesman Isaac Baker said the following

“Senator Clinton does not support delaying the Constellation program and intends to maintain American leadership in space exploration.”

So far Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain’s camp haven’t said what they would do about the program. Mitt Romney has said in the past does support the Bush initiative to return to the Moon and go to Mars. Meanwhile an RNC spokesperson jumped on the Obama position saying “It is ironic that Barack Obama’s plan to help our children reach for the stars is financed in part by slashing a program that helps us learn about those very same stars.”

Meanwhile John Edwards responded “We need a balanced space and aeronautics program. We need to support solar system exploration as an important goal for our human and robotic programs, but only as one goal among several” which does not sound like a ringing endorsement.

Senator Clinton’s campign has been the most vigorous in denouncing the Obama position thus far. Earlier in the year on October 4th 2007 Clinton gave a speech at Carnegie Institution for Science in which she spoke about ending the “war on science” waged in recent years by the Bush administration and others. In that speech she said:

I will pursue an ambitious agenda in space exploration and earth sciences. I’ll fully fund NASA’s earth sciences program, launch a new, comprehensive space-based study of climate change, and reverse the deep funding cuts that NASA’s and FAA’s aeronautics research and development budgets have endured in the last few years.