Here’s some more “Humans R Teh Dum” for ya…

When Space Science Becomes a Political Liability

Basically, it is easy to play off the “don’t spend money in space when there are still problems on Earth” trope, as exemplified by this attack ad:

Fletcher, the candidate who campaigned against an opponent based on his support of space science, won. Her district? Houston, Texas. Gee, I wonder if there might be any of that nasty space-spending going on in Houston?

It boggles my tiny little mind that anti-space worked so well in a town with a major NASA center. This does not bode well for the future. However… done right this *could* be used to argue that as NASA winds down in relevancy, with space exploration becoming the province of private enterprise, perhaps the space centers of the future could be located elsewhere. While it is down to physics that launch centers should be as far south as practical, that’s not even remotely true for *other* centers. Manufacturing, testing, laboratories, planning, admin, mission control… these could be *anywhere.* Like a dream I had a while back, manufacturing of the spacecraft and launch systems of the future could be done *anywhere.* With boosters and spacecraft like the BFR, they could be built one place far from the launch site… and could self-transport themselves from the manufacturing facility near, say, Bozeman Montana to the launch facilities in Florida. This ability would allow for the location of major space centers in places that are not only substantially less Hell-like than Houston with it’s insane heat and humidity, but also where the citizenry actually appreciates them.