Despite a history of bipartisan cooperation on space, "It will be a battle if there is a Democratic administration," warns Aerospace Industries Association space systems vp J.P. Stevens.

"One of the first areas that people start looking to cut budgets is in that civil space area, and that's a real concern as we transition out of what we've been doing for the last 20 or 30 years and that's flying up to low earth orbit and putting together an International Space Station."

"There's a gap," Steven says. "After 2010 we need to as soon as possible have a new vehicle." NASA, and AIA, are is looking to the moon and planets, banking on NASA's Constellation program--the Ares series of launchers and the manned Orion vehicle--to succeed the Space Shuttle.

"This is a developmental program I'm sure there will be more delays," Stevens says. Already, he told Show News, "We're spending a lot of money and we will be spending a lot of money and with little pride paying the Russians to take us up there."

"One of the candidates," the former Marine Corps aviator adds, speaking of Senator Barack Obama, "has come out and said he's going to use that program and the money in the exploration program to fund one of his educational programs."

"That takes a five-year and maybe a six-year program and makes it become a ten- or 11- or 12-year program."

Military and communications satellites need to be supported too. "We rely on this stuff," Stevens says. "We need to protect those assets."

The Chinese, he says, "have shown us they have the capability to knock our eyes out of the sky. We need to be able to come back and protect those eyes."