Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, frontrunners to be the Republican nominee for president, sparred over the future of the U.S. space program in a Florida debate Thursday.

Credit: NASA
 
Speaking to a crowd near the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, Gingrich proposed building a moon base by 2020 and revitalizing NASA to offer incentives for the private development of space.

While expressing support for human spaceflight, Romney accused Gingrich of pandering for votes along the Space Coast, where the economy is depressed after the collapse of the housing market and layoffs stemming from the end of the space shuttle program.

"I believe in a manned space program," Romney said. "I'm not looking for a colony on the moon. I think the cost of that would be in the hundreds of billions, if not trillions. I'd rather be rebuilding housing here in the U.S."

The Republican field, which also includes former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, is vying to face President Barack Obama in the November general election.

"I do not want to be the country that having gotten to the moon first, turned around and said it doesn't really matter, let the Chinese dominate space, what do we care? I think that's the path of national decline, and I am for America being a great country, not a country in decline," Gingrich responded.

"This idea of going state to state and promising what people want to hear, promising billions, hundreds of billions of dollars to make people happy, that's what got us into the trouble we're in now," Romney said. "We've got to say no to this kind of spending."

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, called Gingrich's plan an "enormous expense."

"It may be a big idea, but it's not a good idea," Romney said.

Romney and Gingrich lead the polls for Florida's Jan. 31 primary vote.

Gingrich claimed his vision for space exploration would be "90 percent private sector." NASA should offer prizes to entrepreneurs to explore and develop space, the former House speaker said.

"It would be based on the desire to change the government rules and change the government regulations to get NASA out of the business of trying to run rockets, and to create a system where it's easy for private sector people to be engaged," Gingrich said. "I want to see us move from one launch occasionally to six or seven launches a day because so many private enterprises woke up and said we're prepared to go do it."

Gingrich said Wednesday he viewed himself as a "romantic" supporter of spaceflight.

Romney is scheduled to visit Cape Canaveral on Friday afternoon. In Thursday night's debate in Jacksonville, Romney said he would seek input from academia, industry, the military and from within his own administration to decide on a course for NASA.

"I'd like to come together and talk about different options and the costs," Romney said. "I'd like corporate America, as well as the defense network and others, to come together on a partnership basis to create a plan to keep our space program thriving and growing."

Santorum planned to visit the Space Coast on Saturday, but the trip was canceled by his campaign.

He called the United States a "frontier nation" Thursday night, adding "space is important" but lampooning Gingrich's moon base proposal as irresponsible.

"I agree that we need to bring good minds from the private sector much more involved in NASA than the government bureaucracy we have," Santorum said. "But let's just be honest. We run a $1.2 trillion deficit right now. We're borrowing 40 cents of every dollar, and to go out and promise new programs and big ideas, that's a great thing to maybe get votes, but it's not a responsible thing."

Paul also came out against a boost for NASA.

"I don't think we should go to the moon. I think we should maybe send some politicians up there," Paul joked. "I would be very reluctant, but space technology should be followed up to some degree for national defense purposes, but not just for the fun of it."