On the Defensive, President Obama Pledges Commitment to NASA, Space Exploration

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2010— -- President Obama defended his plans for the NASA space exploration program today, saying, "I am 100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future."

He addressed a crowd of a couple of hundred astronauts, engineers and members of the NASA community at the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The Obama administration has articulated a new direction for NASA that includes more investment in commercial space transportation, and research and development that ultimately will lead to a manned mission to an asteroid and also to Mars.

"Broadening our capabilities in space will continue to serve our society in ways that we can scarcely imagine," the president told the crowd, "because exploration will once more inspire wonder in a new generation -- sparking passions and launching careers -- and because, ultimately, if we fail to press forward in the pursuit of discovery, we are ceding our future and we are ceding that essential element of the American character."

As evidence of his administration's commitment to space exploration, Obama touted a $6 billion boost for NASA despite the current recession and federal budget freeze on other major government agencies.

The president called himself part of the "generation so inspired by the space program."

He added that investing in NASA is a necessity, not a luxury.

"For me, the space program has always captured an essential part of what it means to be an American -- reaching for new heights, stretching beyond what previously did not seem possible," he said. "And so, as president, I believe that space exploration is not a luxury, it's not an afterthought in America's quest for a brighter future -- it is an essential part of that quest."

The Obama administration has taken a lot of heat in recent weeks for its decision to cancel the Bush administration's plan to send an American manned mission to the moon for a seventh time.