Expect no big space announcement from President Bush. Credit: NASA/JSC.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters at a press conference Thursday that there were no plans by the President to announce a new space policy in the near future, such as during a speech at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic flight.

"There are no plans for any policy announcements in the immediate future, and that would include any upcoming speeches," McClellan said.

Reports in the last several days suggested that Bush would unveil a new space policy in the very near future. The centerpiece of that policy, according to those reports, including a front-page article in Thursday's New York Post, would be resuming human missions to the Moon, possibly as the first step towards a human expedition to Mars.

"Those reports are not coming out of the White House," said McClellan. "It's premature to get into any speculation about some of that space policy."

National space policy has been under review by the Bush Administration in one form or another since mid-2002. At that time Bush directed an interagency group to begin a "phased review" of various topics of space policy, starting with commercial remote sensing and space transportation. In April 2003 the administration did release a new remote sensing policy that called for greater government use of commercial imaging satellites. Administration officials said the space transportation policy was nearly complete at the time of the Columbia accident; work on the policy was then suspended, and it is uncertain if and when it resumed.

In September, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe revealed during a Congressional hearing that the Bush Administration was undertaking a broad review of the nation's overall space policy. That work has been performed largely in private by another interagency group, with the participation of NASA and, reportedly, Vice President Dick Cheney.

Few details about the status of that review have been made public, but what has been leaked suggests that the administration may be considering a bold new direction for the nation's space program. By late October the first reports came out that the policy review was considering human missions to the Moon, possibly by the end of next decade. Other reports, though, have suggested that the administration is considering few near-term changes to national space policy, preferring to focus on returning the space shuttle to flight, completing the assembly of the International Space Station, and developing the Orbital Space Plane.

At Thursday's press conference, McClellan did note the existence of the review, and said it is still in progress. "Several months ago, the President initiated an interagency review of space exploration to determine the appropriate future course of United States based exploration activities," he said. "It has been underway, and it continues, and it is ongoing."

"I think you've heard the President talk about the importance of space exploration, and the importance, too, of continuing our journey into space. He remains strongly committed to those efforts," McClellan added. "You're asking me to kind of jump ahead of an interagency review process that is going on to make recommendations, and then the President will make some decisions to determine the future direction of space exploration."

McClellan even refused to confirm that Bush would speak at the Wright Brothers' centennial celebration at Kitty Hawk on the 17th. "I don't announce events this far in advance," he explained. "But I made it very clear to you that there are no plans to make any policy announcements on our space program at any immediate upcoming speeches."