FYI,

"Obama Aims to Ax Moon Mission"
Orlando Sentinel
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.

: In the meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on
: Earth-science projects principally, researching and monitoring
: climate change and on a new technology research and development
: program that will one day make human exploration of asteroids and
: the inner solar system possible.

: There will also be funding for private companies to develop
: capsules and rockets that can be used as space taxis to take
: astronauts on fixed-price contracts to and from the International
: Space Station a major change in the way the agency has done
: business for the past 50 years.

: The White House budget request, which is certain to meet fierce
: resistance in Congress, scraps the Bush administration's Vision for
: Space Exploration and signals a major reorientation of NASA,
: especially in the area of human spaceflight.

: "We certainly don't need to go back to the moon," said one
: administration official.

: Everyone interviewed for this article spoke on condition of
: anonymity, either because they are not authorized to talk for the
: White House or because they fear for their jobs. All are familiar
: with the broad sweep of Obama's budget proposal, but none would
: talk about specific numbers because these are being tightly held by
: the White House until the release of the budget.

: But senior administration officials say the spending freeze for
: some federal agencies is not going to apply to the space agency in
: this budget proposal. Officials said NASA was expected to see some
: "modest" increase in its current $18.7 billion annual budget
: possibly $200 million to $300 million more but far less than the
: $1 billion boost agency officials had hoped for.

: They also said that the White House plans to extend the life of the
: International Space Station to at least 2020. One insider said
: there would be an "attractive sum" of money to be spent over
: several years for private companies to make rockets to carry
: astronauts there.

: But Obama's budget freeze is likely to hamstring NASA in coming
: years as the spending clampdown will eventually shackle the agency
: and its ambitions. And this year's funding request to develop both
: commercial rockets and a new NASA spaceship will be less than what
: was recommended by a White House panel of experts last year.

: That panel, led by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine,
: concluded that to have a "viable" human space-exploration program,
: NASA needed a $3 billion annual budget hike, and that it would take
: as much as $5 billion distributed over five years to develop
: commercial rockets that could carry astronauts safely to and from
: the space station.

: Last year, lawmakers prohibited NASA from canceling any
: Constellation programs and starting new ones in their place unless
: the cuts were approved by Congress. The provision sends a "direct
: message that the Congress believes Constellation is, and should
: remain, the future of America's human space flight program," wrote
: U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., last month.

: Nevertheless, NASA contractors have been quietly planning on the
: end of Ares I, which is years behind schedule and millions of
: dollars over budget. NASA has already spent more than $3 billion on
: Ares I and more than $5 billion on the rest of Constellation.

: In recent days, NASA has been soliciting concepts for a new
: heavy-lift rocket from major contractors, including Boeing Co.,
: Lockheed Martin Corp. and Pratt & Whitney. Last week, a group of
: moonlighting NASA engineers and rocket hobbyists proposed
: variations on old agency designs that use the shuttle's main
: engines and fuel tank to launch a capsule into space. According to
: officials and industry executives familiar with the presentations,
: some of the contractor designs are very similar to the one pressed
: by the hobbyists.

: Officially, companies such as Boeing still support Constellation
: and its millions of dollars of contracts. Some believe that in a
: battle with Congress, Ares may survive.

: "I would not say Ares is dead yet," said an executive with one
: major NASA contractor. "It's probably more accurate to say it's on
: life support. We have to wait to see how the coming battle ends."

: Few doubt that a fight is looming. In order to finance new science
: and technology programs and find money for commercial rockets,
: Obama will be killing off programs that have created jobs in some
: powerful constituencies, including the Marshall Space Flight Center
: in Shelby's Alabama. But the White House is said to be ready for a
: fight.

: The end of the shuttle program this year is already going to slash
: 7,000 jobs at Kennedy Space Center.

: One administration official said the budget will send a message
: that it's time members of Congress recognize that NASA can't design
: space programs to create jobs in their districts. "That's the view
: of the president," the official said.

Mark Reiff

Well, death of the Ares program is a good move. I disagree about the
importance of going back to the Moon, but if we can get regular
commercial transportation to orbit -- as this change will certainly
encourage -- then I expect commercial development of the Moon to follow.
So in the long run, it's probably all for the best.

My $0.02,
- Joe