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The Ares 1-X test rocket lifts off on a six-minute suborbital flight as a cone of moisture forms from air compression at the Kennedy Space Center - Source: Reuters -
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US President Barack Obama is trying to tamp down an uprising in
politically vital Florida against a new strategy for NASA that has
rankled space veterans and lawmakers and sparked fears of job
losses.
Obama's decision to kill NASA's Constellation program to launch
astronauts into orbit and return Americans to the moon has prompted
soul-searching on whether the United States is prepared to cede a
pre-eminent space role to Russia and China.
"As with all great human achievements, our commitment to space must
be renewed and encouraged or we will surely be surpassed by other
nations who are presently challenging our leadership in space,"
Democratic and Republican members of the US Congress from Florida
wrote to Obama last week.
Obama's move for a greater private sector role in space launches -
as he seeks to keep ballooning federal deficits in check - has
generated fears of job losses among thousands of NASA employees who
provide an important economic base in Florida, a state usually
crucial in presidential elections.
Employees at major space complexes in Alabama and Texas are also
worried.
It is making for a potentially explosive environment when Obama
travels to the Cape Canaveral area on April 15 to host a space
conference with top officials and leaders in the field.
"What reception will they get? Not good," said Keith Cowing, editor
of nasawatch.com, a website that closely monitors the US space
agency.
"It's a gutsy move. It's Daniel in the Lion's Den."
Obama, in his February 1 budget proposal, planned to increase
NASA's overall funding to $27 billion in 2011 with an emphasis on
science and less spent on space exploration.
He would cancel the Constellation program's Orion spacecraft and
Ares rockets, after $12 billion and five years of tests.
Constellation is aimed at returning astronauts to the moon in
the 2020s to clear the way for a Mars mission.
Instead, Obama would spend $8.5 billion a year for five years to
support commercial spacecraft development and pursue new
technologies to explore the solar system in what the White House
called a more effective and affordable way.
Larger issue
Various members of the far-flung US space community have been
troubled by the change, such as former NASA administrator Michael
Griffin, who struggled to get more funding for Constellation from
the previous administration of President George Bush and believes
Obama should stick with it.
"There's a larger issue here," Griffin said.
"Does the United States want to have a real space program? Do we
actually think we can have a robust, exciting, world-leading space
program by hiring private enterprise to furnish it?"
But John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at
George Washington University, said he believed it was time for the
private sector to get more involved in space.
"There's no reason to think that the technical talent in the
private sector, combined with a significant degree of NASA
engagement, cannot come up with a good solution," he said.
The debate to some extent has riven the space community.
Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, supports the change in
direction while Harrison Schmitt, one of the last on the lunar
surface, opposes it.
NASA already has contracts with Space Exploration Technologies and
Orbital Sciences Corp to deliver cargo to the International Space
Station.
SpaceX and other firms are developing spaceships that can carry
passengers to orbit and back.
The shuttle system still has four more flights to get crews and
hardware to the International Space Station before the craft are
retired.
After that, NASA will be without a heavy-lift capability for a
period of time.
This means Americans would have to pay to ride on Russian rockets
to get into orbit, a stark turn of events after the pivotal battle
the United States and the Soviet Union fought to outdo each other
in the space race.
To maintain a lift capability, Florida Democratic Senator Bill
Nelson wants the administration to add one shuttle flight and
develop the Ares rockets that are part of the Constellation
program.
Ultimately, Nelson believes Obama needs to give the United States a
goal for its space program and hopes it will be a mission to
Mars.
