[FPSPACE] Is America's manned space program dying? Part 3: No Ares, No Constellation programs....FINIS

[Peter Pesavento]

Confirmation of the cancellation of the entire Ares and Constellation
programs.

 

But you can read the spin of it here below.

 

Also reportage of 7,000 lay-offs coming due at the end of the Shuttle
program.

 

Like the Spooks have been saying, "We can't spy if we don't buy" [have
outside private contractors do much of the intelligence gathering and
interpretation]..now NASA is going to be saying, 

 

"We can't fly if we don't buy" [farming everything out to outside private
contractors]

 

And like the article below says, 

 

"..

 

However, none of the officials would say how much money or what plans
existed for creating a NASA spaceship capable of launching humans beyond the
space station. When asked, officials repeatedly dodged the question of what
plans the administration had for a heavy-lift rocket.



."

 

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-nasa-budget-boost-012810-201001
27,0,5884253.story

 

 


OrlandoSentinel.com


Obama officials: NASA to get $6 billion for commercial rockets


By Robert Block, Orlando Sentinel Space Editor

7:36 PM EST, January 27, 2010

CAPE CANAVERAL

Administration officials and a former astronaut on Wednesday called
President Obama's plans for NASA "exciting" and "bold," saying he was
replacing a failed moon program with a new $6 billion project to develop
commercial rockets capable of taking astronauts into orbit.

They said it was all part of a broader plan to hike NASA's budget by an
average of $1.3 billion annually over the next five years.

Part of that increase would cover a new technology research and development
program, extension of the life of the International Space Station from 2015
to 2020, and investments in infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center to
modernize the facility to maintain it as America's premier spaceport.

But conspicuous by its absence was any mention of a commitment to develop a
new government-owned and operated "heavy-lift" rocket capable of taking
humans beyond the low Earth Orbit.

The news teleconference at which the officials and astronaut spoke was
organized for reporters at two Florida newspapers in response to the Orlando
Sentinel's report on Tuesday, which said the White House budget next week
would kill NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon and scrap the
rockets being developed to take them there.

On the teleconference was an administration official, a NASA official and
Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

"As you know, the current program of record did not hold water," said the
NASA official, whom the White House did not identify. "The fact that we
would have had a program where the space station didn't ever again have any
humans launching from the United States to it until it was driven into the
Pacific Ocean . we felt very, very strongly that this was not a program to
be adopted."

But the NASA official stressed that just because the Constellation program
to return humans to the moon and its Ares I and Ares V rockets were going to
be canceled did not mean that the Obama administration was abandoning
exploration and human spaceflight.

Both officials said there would be "a very significant program," the most
important part of which was the effort to develop private space taxis to
take crew back and forth to the space station.

"We do believe it is time for American companies to come into this program,"
the NASA official said, pointing out that for decades private companies have
been launching precious satellites into space. "The investment in that will
be $6 billion over five years. This is serious, serious investment that we
believe will reduce that gap [in human spaceflight] from what it would have
been with the program of record between shuttle retirement and the Ares I
and Orion [capsule] coming on line."

Relying on private companies flying astronauts for NASA on fixed price
contracts would be a major change in longstanding national space policy.
Many space boosters in Congress are opposed to ditching Ares I and Orion for
commercially operated spaceships that have yet to fly humans, fearing there
will be a drop in safety standards.

But Ride, who recently served on a White House blue ribbon panel reviewing
NASA human spaceflight plans, said she thought those concerns would be
allayed by NASA's involvement in the design of the rockets and the safety
procedures the companies would have to follow.

"NASA considers astronaut safety to be very important," Ride said.

The administration official said that resistance in Congress to the
president's plan would soften when lawmakers became more familiar with what
the budget did for America's space program.

The officials stressed that Florida in particular would benefit from
investments in commercial and infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center that
would help offset an expected 7,000 job losses when the shuttle program ends
either later this year or early next.

However, none of the officials would say how much money or what plans
existed for creating a NASA spaceship capable of launching humans beyond the
space station. When asked, officials repeatedly dodged the question of what
plans the administration had for a heavy-lift rocket.

Already lawmakers are preparing to fight Obama's NASA plan. On Wednesday,
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R- Texas, said she would introduce a bill that
would force NASA to fly additional shuttle flights beyond the final five now
scheduled while NASA works on developing the next generation space vehicle.

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