spacetoday.net: White House denies new space policy imminent

Posted: Fri, Dec 5, 2003, 1:31 AM ET (0631 GMT)
White House officials said Thursday that there no immediate plans for the President to announce a new national space policy, which could include human missions to the Moon. Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters during a press conference Thursday that "there are no plans for any policy announcements in the immediate future." Recent reports, including a front-page article in Thursday's New York Post, suggested that Bush would announce the new policy, whose cornerstone would be human missions to the Moon perhaps by the end of the next decade, as soon as December 17, during a speech at Kitty Hawk to mark the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight. McClellan declined to even confirm that Bush would even speak at Kitty Hawk. McClellan did say that an interagency space policy review is ongoing, but offered no timetable of when the review might end and when a new policy might be released.