Obama to NASA: Redo Exploration Plans
EmailThe stories are flying. NASA’s newest rockets may not be.
The Obama White House is due to deliver its new budget on Monday, and while officials there are saying very little, various reports say it will kill the Constellation Program — the plan, ordered by President Bush in 2004, to replace the space shuttles, return astronauts to the moon and eventually send them on to Mars.
The Orlando Sentinel, citing anonymous sources, said NASA may get a modest budget increase (unlike a lot of other agencies facing freezes), but certainly not the $3 billion extra that Obama’s own space-advisory panel said last year was needed to make Constellation viable.
“There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation program at all,” write Robert Block and Mark K. Matthews in the Sentinel.
“In their place, according to White House insiders, agency officials, industry executives and congressional sources familiar with Obama’s long-awaited plans for the space agency, NASA will look at developing a new “heavy-lift” rocket that one day will take humans and robots to explore beyond low Earth orbit. But that day will be years — possibly even a decade or more — away.” The full piece is HERE.
Keeping the space shuttles flying is pretty much out of the question; NASA has already started winding down the program. After the five remaining flights this year, it will, for instance, be out of the one-time-use external fuel tanks for any more launches.
The new Ares rockets were already behind schedule and considered likely candidates for cancellation, even before last fall’s test launch of the Ares 1-X.
The International Space Station, still not finished, may actually get new life from all this. It was slated to be ditched in the Pacific in 2015, but since it’s already cost something like $100 billion, the administration may decide to keep it operating for an extra five years.
And how to get astronauts to and from it without depending solely on other countries? This may be the biggest battle of all. There are numerous reports (take a look at the Wall St. Journal) suggesting the administration may outsource the astronaut business — provide more funding to private companies that hope to do the flying.
There’s one giant caveat here: many in Congress are against yet another change in direction for the space program, and in tough times, the administration has other priorities. (Top: NASA artwork: Ares 1-X rocket on launch pad.)
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Space travel is a failed attempt to prove evolution and a colossal waste of money! Federal agencies seem to work on the 90/10 principle, 90% of the work is done by 10% of the people. NASA is a bit more elite, I might score it an 80/20.
Posted by: Ed Taylor | January 28, 2010, 12:34 pm 12:34 pm
Killing the space program is patently stupid. The offshoot technology we all enjoy from the space program is a big part of what made this country great. To abandon it is just another example of how this President wants to change this country. Unfortunately he wants to change it into a third world country.
Posted by: Rick Conner | January 28, 2010, 1:23 pm 1:23 pm
Great job Obama! I’m not sure if this is just another way to “outsource” funding for private agencies at the taxpayer expense (in keeping with Clinton and Bush priorities) or if this policy is just more of the current White House’s apparent desire to have China, India, and others catchup -and surpass- the USA in technology and space exploration also. Putin is also laughing loudly (again)!
Posted by: Ed | January 28, 2010, 1:25 pm 1:25 pm
To: E Taylor…
To connect the space program to evolution is just about the biggest
stretch I ever heard..go read your bible
and prey for a brain.
Posted by: blackie | January 28, 2010, 2:16 pm 2:16 pm
Space program is largely waste. We should use those scientists and $$ to fix some Earth-bound issues.
Posted by: tex | January 28, 2010, 2:23 pm 2:23 pm
This would do more to stimulate the economy (especially in the tech sector) than anything else Obama has proposed. I really think this guy is clueless, good intentions but doesn’t know how to get from point A to point B.
Posted by: Phil | January 28, 2010, 4:23 pm 4:23 pm
I was all for President Bush’s mission to the moon when I thought he’d be the first to go. Pity.
Posted by: A.Lincoln | January 28, 2010, 9:11 pm 9:11 pm
We’ve been spending 10 billion A MONTH for the last 7 years on Iraq and Afghanistan. We spent almost a TRILLION dollars on a stimulus bill. We’re about to spend billions more on health care. AND we’re talking about a second stimulus program. So now we can’t afford a few billion to keep us the manned space program business and up to date technology wise? This from the President who says we have to get our kids engaged in science? China and India are going to the moon. We in the US soon won’t be able to even get in to LEO by ourselves. How are we going to feel when China lands on the moon? or India? While we bury are heads in the sand. History is full of once great nations who went in to decline because they lost their technological edge. Killing the space program and diverting funds to social issues is not going to make a fraction of a difference in solving those problems. However, from a leadership and technological perspective it is a disaster.
Posted by: Hal | January 28, 2010, 9:55 pm 9:55 pm
For a man who is supposed to be intelligent this is an enormously stupid thing to do. Bush may not have been the sharpest pencil in the box but this is down right idiotic.
Posted by: Yehuda | January 29, 2010, 12:26 am 12:26 am
Like how will America get to LEO now? The shuttle will be out of service, and without our own space vehicle, we will be too dependent on the Russians to send us to the ISS.
Obama will kill our space program with this move, and we’ll not ever recover.
Posted by: GWP | January 29, 2010, 7:45 am 7:45 am
Read the comments on the Orlando Sentinel article. I worked at KSC and I agree with the guy that recognizes NASA is currently a waste of tax payers money. NASA has to go back to basic science, most of the money currently it spends now is on manned flight, which became a publicity stunt years ago.
Posted by: torres_hd | January 29, 2010, 8:54 am 8:54 am
3 more years *sigh*
Posted by: Phil | January 29, 2010, 9:53 am 9:53 am
ISS is more than just the US! It is many nations involved, for example: Japan, Germany, Russia, Italy. IF Obama wants to ditch the station – why not just give control over to the Russians. They had a lot of experience with their Space Station MIR! The US cannot just ditch the station – they have to get agreement from the other countries involved. Also – the spin-offs from Space Technology advanced our medical knowledge and skills, advanced communication, advanced the weather and so many other things. Abandoning this technology just to save a few billion $$, compared to other programs, is idiotic. IF it happens – might as well go get a horse and buggy – because space technology also helps the US and other countries in finding new oil and gas resources.
Posted by: Dirk Baeuerle | January 29, 2010, 10:44 am 10:44 am
Nasa budget is only 0.8% of the GDP.
Defence budget is 21%
So anoying everyone on earth with wars is 26.25 times more important than going into space.
Cut where you should Obama, end those stupid war that cost tax payer ΒΌ of all the money they make in one year.
Posted by: Francis | January 29, 2010, 11:03 am 11:03 am
Obama is an idiot plain and simple. He won’t rest untill he turns our country into a third world basket case subservient to communist china.
Posted by: Edgar Friendly | January 29, 2010, 11:42 am 11:42 am
Another “great” decision by the Bonehead In Chief. Can’t wait for November when we can at least throw his underlings Reid and Pelosi out on their butts and put a stop to his foolish policies.
Posted by: E.J. | January 29, 2010, 11:47 am 11:47 am
Poor plan and a digraceful cop out for America from its leader… poor decision and horiffic outcome will be the result of the lack of any real knowledge of space exploration and the benfits that we ‘have historically’ enjoyed. congrtulations North Korea and Russia. Goodbye America…
Posted by: mike campbell | January 29, 2010, 10:10 pm 10:10 pm
I think they probably determined that we couldn’t get to the moon before the Chinese.
Posted by: James | January 31, 2010, 11:11 pm 11:11 pm
obama is an idiot ….wow cant wait for china and india to surpass us
Posted by: ugh | February 1, 2010, 6:30 pm 6:30 pm
Why did Bolden roll over so easily? Why does the white house want to release a government entity like NASA to the private sector when he is trying to gobble UP the private sector, eliminating free enterprise? Just doesn’t make sense. And how did Boeing get the contract ALREADY? It seems the motto of the white house is, “We don’t have to be #1 anymore”. Very sad. Very sad indeed. I sure hope that Congress will finally do something right and kick this proposal Straight to the moon!
Posted by: skoozz | February 2, 2010, 7:41 pm 7:41 pm
It looks like he is leading the country in new direction. He wants NASA to give a tough fight to other space agencies like ISRO.
Posted by: Advanced Acai Review | February 8, 2010, 12:55 am 12:55 am
Some of you people think Obama just woke up one day and decided this all on his own! What’s stupid are some of these comments!
Posted by: Gerald | February 18, 2010, 4:48 pm 4:48 pm
Obama shows a real lack of insight and vision in letting the space shuttle program expire and by not funding the aires/orion program. He has put us out of the manned space flight program. He wants students to pursue careers in math and science, but, at the same time, he has eliminated a major motivation for students to go into these fields. Moreover, doesn’t he realize how many jobs will be lost, in key red states, by terminating these vital programs. Remember the mistake that President Carter made in cancelling the B-1 bomber. It was one of the nails in his coffin. This is just another nail in Obama’s one term coffin.
Posted by: Joseph Green | February 22, 2010, 7:24 am 7:24 am
If it were possible to get rid of lousy politicians, bush wouldn’t have been in office for 8 years, would he have been?
Posted by: Ultimate Acai Max | March 3, 2010, 7:30 am 7:30 am
The private space industry is in it’s baby steps. Obama has made perhaps the greatest mistake in science and research in the 21st century. People seem to say, “why spend billions to land on a rock?”
Posted by: Livea | March 15, 2010, 11:59 pm 11:59 pm
Exactly how many manned orbits of the earth have been provided by private sector launch capabilities? Last time I checked it was roughly: ZERO!!!
Ares/Orion may have problems. But, under Obama’s plan we will give up proven launch capabilities for totally unproven and unbuilt empty promises– oh yea, we can rely on the Russians in the meantime. Will someone get this Manchurian candidate out of office already!!
Posted by: DAve | March 21, 2010, 5:20 pm 5:20 pm
History teaches us that when the government makes significant investments in scientific and exploratory research, it pays big dividends in the out years. To this end, the Obama administration should make space exploration a top priority ..not downsize it
Posted by: Dwight Chestnut | May 5, 2010, 4:06 pm 4:06 pm