Old Movie, New Moves

R2 or one of the triplets, Huey, Dewey and Louie?  Life imitates art, possibly:

Robot's space debut 'giant leap for tinmankind'

Anything is possible, given the "right" committee membership:

After Election, Critics of Obama's NASA Plan Likely to Take Over 2 Key Committees

But that's thinking too close in the future, right, wrong, left or centrist.

As much fun as close-Earth orbit experimentation gets, far more interesting or funny will be energy-replenishment systems for a genetically-engineered person carrying the hope of the species in other orbits.

I still say it takes all seven billion of us to get this done right - Iranians, Israelis, Chinese, Peruvians, Americans, British, Malaysians, Thais, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.