Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Obama Defunds the Moon Mission

Despite great strides being made in researching the moon such as finding water, Obama has allocated no money for the program that was supposed to bring humans back to the moon by the end of the decade. This does not doom humanity to live out its days stuck on earth, nor mean that we will not live to see humans walking on the moon again. It does mean that if we do see man walk on the moon again it is more likely to be a private venture or a foreign country (India, China...) then NASA.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-no-moon-for-nasa-20100126,0,2770904.story

"NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon are dead. So are the rockets being designed to take them there — that is, if President Barack Obama gets his way.

When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for its bigger brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to take humans back to the moon.

There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation program at all.

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.
"

More at http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/92628.

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