Some big space news items this week are the NASA authorization bill from the House Space Subcommittee and subsequent debate over the proposed asteroid mission, as well as the political fallout from the Proton rocket crash.

Both of these stories beg the question: is there a reason that space exploration needs to be so closely tied to politicians besides precedent, power and publicity?

It just makes me shake my head and wish that ‘space politics’ only referred to the goings on in the Grand Galactic Senate.