Monday, February 1, 2010

Obama asks for $2.5 billion to cancel Constellation, $6 billion for commercial substitute

Marcia Smith
SpacePolicyOnline

"The battle over the role of the government versus the commercial sector in developing new launch vehicles and spacecraft for human exploration is likely to consume congressional debate over NASA's budget this year. Part of the debate may overlap with President Obama's major focus in this election year - jobs. The President's budget asks for a $100 billion jobs package, but NASA supporters may ask whether aerospace jobs are part of his agenda.

"NASA has not provided an estimate of how many government and contractor jobs will be lost with the cancellation of Constellation - on top of terminating the shuttle over the next several months - or gained by its new commercial approach. Administrator Bolden provided only vague assurances that since the total NASA budget was going up, he expected to support more not fewer jobs though they may not be "concentrated on a few manufacturing and development contracts," and that an "enhanced commercial space industry will create new high-tech jobs."

Read the Full Article HERE.

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