Ares I-X lifts off from the Cape - possibly the one and only launch of the program.
Exclusive:Obama Backs New Launcher and Bigger NASA Budget
ScienceInsider
President Barack Obama will ask Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans to the Moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars, ScienceInsider has learned. The president chose the new direction for the U.S. human space flight program Wednesday at a White House meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, according to officials familiar with the discussion. NASA would receive an additional $1 billion in 2011 both to get the new launcher on track and to bolster the agency’s fleet of robotic Earth-monitoring spacecraft.
According to knowledgeable sources, the White House is convinced that scarce NASA funds would be better spent on a simpler heavy-lift vehicle that could be ready to fly as early as 2018. Meanwhile, European countries, Japan, and Canada would be asked to work on a lunar lander and modules for a moon base, saving the U.S. several billion dollars. And commercial companies would take over the job of getting supplies to the international space station.
The new program would jettison Ares 1. To appease congressional critics like [Sen. Richard] Shelby, the Administration hopes to ensure that research and development work on the new rocket would proceed without significant job losses at NASA centers like Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Read the full story.
Similar Posts:
- Report: Obama Wants to Cancel NASA’s Lunar Mission
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- NASA Warns of High Cost in Canceling Ares I
- Meanwhile, Over in the House….
- Congress Gives $1.5 Billion to Ares Program, Provides Protections Against Cancellation
Well, that was uncharacteristically fast.
Indeed it was. Just earlier today I was reading (was it on this site?) that a decision wouldn’t be coming until February. I wonder now, with the booster scheduled to come online in 2018, is the 2020 goal for humans on the moon still on, or will it be pushed back a few years?
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this is the text of the latest UPDATE to my “Why the Ares-1 is already DEAD” article: “I’ve in mind to develop and publish some ideas about possible uses of the SRBs in manned and cargo rockets, all based on the weak results shown by the 1-X test, but, unfortunately, NASA hasn’t released yet the full data of the test with the very important graphs regarding the burn time/thrust vs. acceleration and altitude curves.”
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http://www.ghostnasa.com/posts2/058ares1dead.html
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Pros:
+ Including the moon as an exploration destination. (Contrary to Augustine.)
+ Invite Europe+Japan+Canada to be responsible for lunar lander+surface modules. (This would also be viable for Constellation.)
+ Moving the readiness date forward for a heavy lift vehicle.
Cons:
- Crew Safety. Commercial crew launch does not exist, and hence is unproven.
- Small NASA budget increase is insufficient (according to Augustine), and only a fraction of that will go towards manned exploration program. The rest will go for global warming “research” programs.