The first and last men to walk on the moon are featured participants in a Senate hearing today that will debate the Obama administration's plans for human spaceflight. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing, titled "The Future of U.S. Human Space Flight," begins at 2:30 p.m. You can watch a Webcast here, and click on the names below to open prepared testimony.
Panelists include Apollo legends Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan, who have criticized NASA's plan to cancel the Constellation program that intended to return astronauts to the moon on Ares rockets and Orion spacecraft. Click here to read a letter Armstrong and Cernan released last month.
Representing the administration are John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Charles Bolden, the NASA Administrator and a four-time shuttle astronaut.
Also offering testimony is Norman Augustine, the former Lockheed Martin CEO who chaired the White House-appointed panel that reviewed options for human spaceflight last summer.
The final report by the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee said Constellation was on an "unsustainable trajectory," Augustine has supported the administration's "flexible path" approach to exploration that would target a landing on an asteroid by 2025.
The hearing will consider:
-- How the NASA plan relates to national priorities, such as education, innovation, and security;
-- Implications of the plan, including impacts on national security, workforce, the industrial base, and our international posture; and
-- The plan's integration, including schedule and cost.
IMAGE: President Barack Obama chats with Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong on July 20, 2009, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
9 comments:
Mr. Obama does not deserve to have his photograph taken next to these honorable men.
Unfortunately, Mr. Armstrong has become just another talking head for the big corporations that stand to lose their fat no-risk contracts.
The Shuttle is flying reliably and efficiently, and is actually less expensive per misison than Constellation, which carries much less. We do not even have a vehicle on the drawing board that has the capability of the Shuttle. We as a community, including the management of NASA, shold clearly state that it is illogical to terminate the Shuttle program when it is at its most productive. Human spaceflight using expendable rockets will always be too expensive to be practical as more than a stunt. We have the workers here with the hands-on experience to make a new generation of reusable spacecraft practical and safe.
How can you say that about one of the greatest and bravest men America has ever had.!!!!.Talking Head !!!.Yeah Right .!! Experience IS knowledge.
I agree with both Anons. It would explain why Armstrong came out of nowhere after being out of the public eye all these years. I happen to agree with him, so hopefully Congress will listen.
I agree, he is a hero but times have changeds. Mr. Armstrong’s experience comes from a time when NASA received 5% of the total US budget and there was a precise and attainable goal. We cannot afford to develop another overpriced, overcomplicated space access system that siphons all funding from research and development for the next 30 years. In 2040 we will look back and say, “Why haven’t we left LEO?”
Yes, Anonymous 4:02, times have changed. Thankfully we still have Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Cernan to remind us of what we could be once again. These men have honored our country with their service once again. We would do well to listen carefully to their counsel.
Too many Anons. Come on folks...at least use a fake name. This is getting too confusing to follow.
Too right Mark Lopa.Graham is my name and i wouldn't use a fake.But some do. Yes very confusing.
Post a Comment