Obama to End NASA Constellation Program?

[KRonn]

I hope we don't go the way that is being suggested in this report.   

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/27/obama-budget-drop-nasa-constellation-program/

Obama to End NASA Constellation Program?



When President Obama releases his budget on Monday, there may be a big hole where funding for NASA's Constellation program used to be. Constellation is the umbrella program that includes the Ares rocket -- the replacement for the aging space shuttles.

According to a report in the Orlando Sentinel, the forthcoming budget -- which the president will announce in detail during Wednesday night's State of the Union address -- will include no funding for lunar landers, no moon bases, and no Constellation program at all. Instead, NASA will outsource space flight to other governments (such as the Russians) and private companies.

NASA's Constellation program aims to create a new generation of spacecraft for human spaceflight, consisting primarily of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, the Orion crew capsule and the Altair Lunar Lander. These spacecraft will be capable of performing a variety of missions, from International Space Station resupply to lunar landings.

SLIDESHOW: The Ares Rocket

But according to the Sentinel, White House insiders and agency officials say NASA will eventually look at developing a new "heavy-lift" rocket that one day will take humans and robots to explore beyond low Earth orbit years in the future -- and possibly even decades or more.

In the meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects -- principally, researching and monitoring climate change -- and on a new technology research and development program that will one day make human exploration of asteroids and the solar system possible.

There will also be funding for private companies to develop capsules and rockets that can be used as space taxis, reports the Sentinel. These companies may take astronauts on fixed-price contracts to and from the International Space Station -- a major change in the way the agency has done business for the past 50 years.

NASA's budget, just over $18.7 billion this year, is still expected to rise again in 2011, reports Space.com, though by much less than the $1 billion increase NASA and its contractors have been privately anticipating since mid-December. A White House-appointed panel, led by former Lockheed Martin chief Norm Augustine, urged these changes on the administration in December.

The panel also said a worthwhile manned space exploration program would require Obama to budget about $55 billion for human spaceflight over the next five years, some $11 billion more than he included in the 2011-2015 forecast he sent Congress last spring.

A senior administration official told Fox News that rather than space programs, the president plans to use the address to renew his focus on jobs, calling for swift action on lagging bills providing tax cuts for job creation, new equipment purchases and the elimination of capital gains for small businesses.

[Neil]

It'd be just as well.  You aren't ready for space yet.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Obama's overlords in China will be happy

[Josquius]

Whatever happened to spending money on prestige projects to make people forget their real problems

[Slargos]

First step towards the diversion of funds into NASSA?

You have yourselves to blame for electing one of them science hating darkies 

[Barrister]

I can't help but think that NASA abandoning it's own internal launch capability is a tremendously bad idea.

[Berkut]

At least this may give Obama something to be remembered by: The President who put the final nail into the US space program.

Hope! Change!

[MadImmortalMan]

We should farm NASA operations out to Virgin Galactic and those SpaceShipOne guys.

[DGuller]

I can't help but think that NASA abandoning it's own internal launch capability is a tremendously bad idea.

Agreed.  Obama's goal here is to reassure the Republicans that he indeed is a eunuch.

[Razgovory]

At least this may give Obama something to be remembered by: The President who put the final nail into the US space program.

Hope! Change!

Hey, you wanted cuts in spending.

[jimmy olsen]

And the fall of the West is complete.

[Ed Anger]

And the fall of the West is complete.

[DisturbedPervert]

India just announced they will launch their first manned space mission in 2016

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8483787.stm

[Warspite]

This thread needs Hamilcar.

[citizen k]

This thread needs Hamilcar.

It needs an astrophysicist or an arrogant asshole?