Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) announced he will not seek a second term as senator. Most commentators remember him as the man who lost a winnable election in 2012 against Barack Obama and for being the sole Republican senator to vote to convict President Donald Trump during his two impeachment trials.
But in 2017, the newly elected Trump started the Artemis program to send astronauts back to the moon for the first time in decades and eventually to Mars. His appointed NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine,to secure bipartisan support for the program. Part of Artemis, the human landing system, is being procured commercially from Elon Musk’s SpaceX. In 2023, it looks like the world, led by the United States, is headed back to the moon.
One can imagine an alternate history in which Gingrich had been faster on his feet, turning the mockery back against Romney for supporting, in effect, Obama’s anti-return to the moon position. Could Gingrich have gone on to win the Republican nomination? Could the former speaker have then gone on to beat Obama, a man as skilled in the politics of personal destruction as he was at using buzzwords such as “hope and change” to puff himself up? One can argue either way.
Still, the idea of a President Newt Gingrich starting a return to the moon program based on prizes and incentives in 2013 is a beguiling one. He would have had to sell the idea to Congress, which might have been skeptical of the plan’s novelty, not to mention the lack of opportunity for pork for campaign contributors.
But let’s say that something could have been cobbled together. Billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos might have relished a commercial race to the moon, spurred on by government prizes. A commercial moon base, with NASA just one of many customers, might have become a reality in 2020 in that alternate timeline.
Sadly, Mitt Romney, who is now bringing his political career to a close, ensured that the return to the moon still resides in the future and will not happen quite the way Gingrich imagined. It’s a dark stain on his legacy.
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