Monday, February 01, 2010

Bolden: Constellation not on the right path

NASA's chief Charlie Bolden says Constellation program was not going to work without a big increase in funding.

"So as much as we would not like it to be the case, and taking nothing away from the hard work and dedication of our team, the truth is that we were not on a path to get back to the moon's surface," Bolden said today. "And as we focused so much of our effort and funding on just getting to the Moon, we were neglecting investments in the key technologies that would be required to go beyond."

The cancellation of Constellation encompasses both Ares I but also the heavy-lift rocket, Ares V, and the Orion crew exploration vehicle.

Read Bolden's comments on President Barack Obama's proposed 2011 budget for NASA.





5 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! Giving up so easy!!! I wonder if Obama told him to say that!!!

Bill said...

I can see replacing the ARES rockets with a more robust launch vehicle, but won't exploring beyond earth orbit require a crew capsule like Orion?

Graham (England ) said...

Nine Billion Dollars DOWN THE DAMN SHUTE .!! Or 5.6 Billion pounds if your a brit like me. What a cop out what a total waste of very talented peoples time and energy.The people at the top have NO vision or balls anymore. I give up on you now.

OVER TO THE CHINESE.

Anonymous said...

I can't say I have been enthusiastic about Constellation program ('Apollo on steroid'...come on!!), and it's been underfunded just from the beginning by the very administration that envisioned it...that said Constellation program did what nothing else have done in more that 30 years, turn on the imagination and expectations of many space enthusiast and put in motion a process that, even if the program itself could have been delayed or changed or scaled back in the future, would have produced new generations of scientist, engineers and so on that could have produced the very edge for the US to be at least on the front line in space exploration and technological enhancements. Now, despite the administration's decision is undoubtedly also related to electoral interests, the risk (so difficult to see??) is to leave the country innovation engine without a plan, without a goal that can catalyze the common efforts. It's all left to private companies (that I think will have their own profit in mind and not exactly the humankind progress) and military R&D (that if I understand correctly keeps being funded more and more every year...well with so many necessary ongoing wars....)...Sorry, it's been long...but I'm quite disappointed by the lack of ability to devise effective plans displayed by this decision...

Anonymous said...

Looks like we will be going into space on a Chinese rocket built by Chinese workers.