Post by Wes on Apr 14, 2010 23:11:08 GMT 10
Obama to outline revamped space policy in Florida
President Barack Obama will outline a revamped space policy on Thursday aimed at speeding development of a new heavy-lift rocket, increasing the number of human spaceflight missions, creating 2,500 new jobs and ultimately voyaging to Mars.
Obama is to explain his policy on a visit to Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, where many in the space community have been critical after NASA announced plans in March to kill a program designed to launch astronauts into orbit and return Americans to the moon.
White House officials said on Tuesday that Obama wants NASA to begin work on building a new heavy lift rocket sooner than envisioned under the canceled Constellation program, with a commitment to decide in 2015 on the specific rocket that will take astronauts deeper into space.
"This is a rocket that is going to happen two years earlier than would've happened under the past program," a senior White House official said.
This is part of a space plan that would boost NASA's budget by $6 billion over five years for research and technology development for manned missions to asteroids, Mars and other possible solar system destinations.
Obama would restructure the Constellation program and allow NASA to develop the Orion crew capsule, previously planned for moon travel, to provide stand-by emergency escape capabilities for the International Space Station.
Obama's policy would direct NASA to launch into space a steady stream of robotic exploration missions to scout locations and demonstrate technologies to increase the safety and capability of future human missions.
To ease the transition for workers dislocated while the new space strategy is being implemented, Obama is proposing to dedicate $40 million of the funds requested for the Constellation transition to transform the regional economy around NASA's Florida facilities and prepare its workforce for the new opportunities.
"This new strategy means more money for NASA, more jobs for the country, more astronaut time in space, and more investments in innovation," said a senior White House official.
LETTER FROM FORMER ASTRONAUTS
Criticism of Obama's plan in recent weeks has centered around his decision to cancel the Constellation program designed by the previous Bush administration and jumpstart the commercial space industry.
Critics see it as ceding a preeminent U.S. human space exploration role, a charge rejected by the White House.
In an example of the criticism Obama has been facing in recent weeks, former astronauts Neil Armstrong -- the first man on the moon -- James Lovell and Eugene Cernan urged Obama to reconsider what they feared were "devastating" new policies for the future of NASA, NBC reported.
"It appears that we will have wasted our current $10-plus billion investment in Constellation and, equally importantly, we will have lost the many years required to recreate the equivalent of what we will have discarded," they wrote.
On the other hand, moon astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, the second man on the moon, said he endorsed Obama's new policy.
"Mars is the next frontier for humankind, and NASA will be leading the way there if we aggressively support the president's plans," he said.
Space is a powerful jobs creator in the important electoral state of Florida as well as in Texas and Alabama, and lawmakers from those states are likely to be listening closely to what the president announces.
Obama has already proposed to retire U.S. space agency NASA's three-ship shuttle fleet, after each spacecraft makes one more flight this year to supply the International Space Station.
In addition to keeping the space station in orbit through 2020, he has already proposed to seed development of commercially operated space taxis, which is expected to cost less than the $51 million per seat Russia now charges to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.
That Russian space seat price goes up to $55 million in 2013. How many new jobs will be created by the new U.S. commercial space transport opportunities remains to be seen.
The shuttles' retirement leaves Russian Soyuz capsules as the only way to fly astronauts to the space station. China, the only other country that has launched people into orbit, is not part of the 16-nation space station partnership.
The problem with the now-canceled moon program, known as Constellation, was that despite a $9 billion investment, it never received adequate funds to reach its goal of landing astronauts on the lunar surface in 2020, an independent review board concluded last year.
For thousands of workers facing layoffs with the end of the shuttle program, Constellation was to be the silver lining.
Obama is scheduled to fly into the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday and address an invitation-only audience of about 200 people. The speech is expected to be carried live on NASA Television, accessible on the Internet at NASA.gov.
au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/technology/7059521/obama-to-outline-revamped-space-policy-in-florida/
President Barack Obama will outline a revamped space policy on Thursday aimed at speeding development of a new heavy-lift rocket, increasing the number of human spaceflight missions, creating 2,500 new jobs and ultimately voyaging to Mars.
Obama is to explain his policy on a visit to Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, where many in the space community have been critical after NASA announced plans in March to kill a program designed to launch astronauts into orbit and return Americans to the moon.
White House officials said on Tuesday that Obama wants NASA to begin work on building a new heavy lift rocket sooner than envisioned under the canceled Constellation program, with a commitment to decide in 2015 on the specific rocket that will take astronauts deeper into space.
"This is a rocket that is going to happen two years earlier than would've happened under the past program," a senior White House official said.
This is part of a space plan that would boost NASA's budget by $6 billion over five years for research and technology development for manned missions to asteroids, Mars and other possible solar system destinations.
Obama would restructure the Constellation program and allow NASA to develop the Orion crew capsule, previously planned for moon travel, to provide stand-by emergency escape capabilities for the International Space Station.
Obama's policy would direct NASA to launch into space a steady stream of robotic exploration missions to scout locations and demonstrate technologies to increase the safety and capability of future human missions.
To ease the transition for workers dislocated while the new space strategy is being implemented, Obama is proposing to dedicate $40 million of the funds requested for the Constellation transition to transform the regional economy around NASA's Florida facilities and prepare its workforce for the new opportunities.
"This new strategy means more money for NASA, more jobs for the country, more astronaut time in space, and more investments in innovation," said a senior White House official.
LETTER FROM FORMER ASTRONAUTS
Criticism of Obama's plan in recent weeks has centered around his decision to cancel the Constellation program designed by the previous Bush administration and jumpstart the commercial space industry.
Critics see it as ceding a preeminent U.S. human space exploration role, a charge rejected by the White House.
In an example of the criticism Obama has been facing in recent weeks, former astronauts Neil Armstrong -- the first man on the moon -- James Lovell and Eugene Cernan urged Obama to reconsider what they feared were "devastating" new policies for the future of NASA, NBC reported.
"It appears that we will have wasted our current $10-plus billion investment in Constellation and, equally importantly, we will have lost the many years required to recreate the equivalent of what we will have discarded," they wrote.
On the other hand, moon astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, the second man on the moon, said he endorsed Obama's new policy.
"Mars is the next frontier for humankind, and NASA will be leading the way there if we aggressively support the president's plans," he said.
Space is a powerful jobs creator in the important electoral state of Florida as well as in Texas and Alabama, and lawmakers from those states are likely to be listening closely to what the president announces.
Obama has already proposed to retire U.S. space agency NASA's three-ship shuttle fleet, after each spacecraft makes one more flight this year to supply the International Space Station.
In addition to keeping the space station in orbit through 2020, he has already proposed to seed development of commercially operated space taxis, which is expected to cost less than the $51 million per seat Russia now charges to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.
That Russian space seat price goes up to $55 million in 2013. How many new jobs will be created by the new U.S. commercial space transport opportunities remains to be seen.
The shuttles' retirement leaves Russian Soyuz capsules as the only way to fly astronauts to the space station. China, the only other country that has launched people into orbit, is not part of the 16-nation space station partnership.
The problem with the now-canceled moon program, known as Constellation, was that despite a $9 billion investment, it never received adequate funds to reach its goal of landing astronauts on the lunar surface in 2020, an independent review board concluded last year.
For thousands of workers facing layoffs with the end of the shuttle program, Constellation was to be the silver lining.
Obama is scheduled to fly into the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday and address an invitation-only audience of about 200 people. The speech is expected to be carried live on NASA Television, accessible on the Internet at NASA.gov.
au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/technology/7059521/obama-to-outline-revamped-space-policy-in-florida/