Re: So Biden can kill off the US manned space program, again?
GWB43 announced the retirement of the space shuttle (probably because it was expensive and dangerous but perhaps you should check the official record of his emails to be certain). The shuttle was kept in service to build the ISS (and until Constellation was ready to replace it) so the the final flight was early Obama/Biden. I would call the attempt to replace the space shuttle was half done well by both sides. The Space shuttle is mostly dead but the replacement took a long time.
The Constellation program was created during the Bush era but there was a clear bi-partisan effort to make it expensive and continuously delayed (by requiring use of space shuttle hardware and suppliers). Obama/Biden tried to cancel Constellation but it had too much support. They achieved compromise: Constellation would get renamed SLS and would continue as a Boeing handout disguised as a jobs program and a new commercial crew program would be started so America would not be dependent on Russia to send astronauts to the ISS.
There was a bi-partisan effort to loot the commercial crew program to funnel extra funds to SLS/Boeing. Obama/Biden and Pence/Trump restricted this to manageable levels so commercial crew was delayed rather than destroyed.
I have no idea what Pence/Harris will actually with the US space program next year but cancelling SLS/Orion is beyond their reach. Congress will turn their backs on thousands of Americans dying from poverty if it allows them to continue shovelling money to Boeing. There was only one idiot great enough to believe that SLS would get Americans to the Moon by 2024. Changing the nominal landing date to something achievable will get support because it extends purpose of SLS - which has nothing to do with actual space flight.
SpaceX will be going to the ISS and probably to the Moon and Mars whatever the US government does. I am sure SpaceX will get enough support so politicians can take some credit for the achievements. I would love to say Blue Origin will show some progress towards catching up with SpaceX but so far the evidence is rather thin.
If you want someone to blame for the slow and expensive progress of the US space program I would point at US voters who do not know or care how their taxes are being spent. NASA used to have an educational outreach program that would have helped but that had its funding cut (to provide funding for a magnificent wall when the Mexicans didn't bother to pay for it?).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
