This paper serves as a defense of the space policy of the Obama Administration. Contrary to what critics have claimed about the new policy, the space policy of the Obama Administration does not abandon exploration any more than it abandons commerce; in fact, it expands both, by removing the need for immediate material gains from NASA to the private sector, allowing NASA to expand its reach to encompass innovation and discovery. Basing this argument on the classic notions of what is political and public, and equating these with exploration, this paper analyzes the transition from the exploratory orientation of the space program in the 1960s to the purely commercial orientation of the decades after, and explains how the Obama policy returns NASA to its role as a successful public space agency.
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