Mike Pence in Florida

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence thanks a member of his police escort while campaigning in Florida on Monday, Oct. 31, 2016. (Campaign photograph)

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence tweeted Monday that a Trump-Pence administration would "expand public-private partnerships and focus NASA's mission on deep space exploration." Pence made the promise while campaigning for votes along Florida's Space Coast.

Pence also said Republicans would "relaunch the national space policy council headed by the vice president" if elected. That was an executive branch policy council absorbed into the National Technology and Science Council in 1993.

A tweet from GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence on the campaign trail in Florida Oct. 31, 2016.

Pence's Tweet today echoes an Oct. 26 promise by GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump to focus on the stars. That sounds like what you might expect from NASA, but it could represent a big change in current NASA priorities. Under President Obama, the agency has increased its efforts in Earth science and especially climate research. NASA scientists are now among the most frequently quoted about climate change, global temperatures and melting Arctic ice caps.

Changing the priority to space travel would boost the "Mission to Mars" that NASA is officially on, which could be good news for the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., the developer of the large rockets needed for deep space travel.

In reports on Trump's earlier remarks, the Washington news website "The Hill" said Trump "takes aim at NASA's climate budget."