A SPACE SUMMIT: Obama to push White House vision for NASA in April. “President Barack Obama will outline his administration’s vision for space agency NASA and an eventual trip to Mars during a conference in Florida in April, the White House said on Sunday. Obama has had to defend his commitment to the space agency in the politically important U.S. state after submitting a budget to Congress that would cancel a program to return U.S. astronauts to the moon.” I favor Obama’s plan here, but I can see why losing 23,000 jobs in a recession isn’t playing well with Floridians. This damage-control effort suggests that the White House wasn’t prepared for the reaction, though.