In the inglorious campaign that has just ended on the other side of the Atlantic, the two candidates for the presidential election did not distinguish themselves much in terms of their ambitions in terms of space.
On Donald Trump's side
The current tenant of the White House has always shown a keen interest in the space, not hesitating to take credit for the success of Nasa's Commercial Crew
programme... initiated under the Obama administration.
"NASA was closed and dead until I relaunched it," he went so far as to say on Twitter.
In May 30, Donald Trump was one of the few presidents to have witnessed a manned flight departure from Florida, landing from behind, straight as an I, during the
the Demo 2 mission of SpaceX's Dragon Crew.
Images of the launch and its preparations, captured in a campaign clip, created a controversy between the political takeover of a programme run by a government
agency and the use without his consent of the views of Doug Hurley's wife and son.
But the first term of office of the 45th President of the United States was marked above all by three commitments in favour of space: the desire, tirelessly repeated
since 2017, to return to the Moon by 2024, in a sustainable manner; the landing of men on Mars by 2030; and the creation of a sixth armed branch, responsible for
space operations: the Space Force.
In addition, its vice-president Mike Pence chairs the National Space Council, which will be re-established in 2017.
Make space great again.
On Joe Biden's side
The programme of Barack Obama's former vice-president differs little from that of Donald Trump in terms of space, a pillar of American power.
The Democratic candidate thus remains in line with the positions in Congress, supporting exploration and discovery.
In particular, he was in favour of a continued American presence on the International Space Station and the continuation of lunar and Martian initiatives.
Unlike its rival, it advocates strengthening the NASA and Noaa Earth observation missions to better understand the impact of climate change.
On the whole, the space issue has therefore remained a bipartisan subject, as NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has often pointed out, and he is clearly hoping to
be reappointed to his post, whatever the outcome of the election…