Source: The Los Angeles Times
At the launch center where the U.S. had dominated space travel over the last half-century, President Obama on Thursday laid out a new vision for the nation’s space ambitions, focusing on future deep-space missions rather than a return trip to the moon.
The proposal differs significantly from the austere agenda that Obama laid out in January when he terminated the moon program. Critics then attacked his decision as a historic withdrawal of U.S. ambitions in space travel just as China and other developing nations are gearing up to retrace U.S. steps on the moon.
Obama’s latest blueprint includes a $3-billion research effort for a new heavy-lift rocket that could carry astronauts to asteroids, Mars or other possible deep-space destinations, as well as a new reliance on private companies to transport astronauts to the International Space Station in low Earth orbit.
“I am 100% committed to the mission of NASA and its future,” Obama said, speaking at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., as he sought to reassure a conference of top NASA officials, lawmakers and scientists who were discussing an agenda for the U.S. space program.
“Space exploration is not a luxury, not an afterthought in America’s brighter future,” Obama said. “It is an essential part of that quest.”
The new reliance on private space companies, coupled with a government program to develop a heavy-launch vehicle, could play to the strengths of the California aerospace industry. Indeed, after his speech, Obama toured a commercial launch center set up by Hawthorne-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX.
But even with the expanded program, the U.S. will end human spaceflight for many years when the last space shuttle launches this year and the fleet is retired after three decades. Then, NASA will be dependent entirely on Russian launch vehicles to reach the International Space Station.
Under the George W. Bush administration, NASA was developing the Constellation family of rockets and an Orion space capsule that could carry a crew of astronauts to the moon or other destinations.
After spending $9 billion, the program was far behind schedule and over budget. An exhaustive examination of the program last year concluded that its ambitions vastly exceeded its future budget.
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