President Obama’s proposed 2010 budget has eliminated all funding for NASA’s beleaguered Constellation program. Developed jointly by NASA and Lockheed Martin, the Constellation program sought to build next-generation launch and crew vehicles to replace the aging space shuttle fleet.
Funding for NASA’s manned moon missions were also cut in Obama’s budget proposal. While overall funding for NASA will increase by $6 billion over five years, most of the money will be diverted into financing for commercial spaceflight. Astronauts would use private spacecraft to travel to the international space station.
If passed, the proposal will drastically alter space exploration. Private space travel, which advocates argue will lower costs and increase efficiency, contrasts starkly with the current government-funded space program.
“Our government space program has become overburdened with too many objectives, and not enough cash,” said William Watson in an interview with Fox News. Watson is an executive director of Space Frontier Foundation, a Houston-based group promoting commercial space activities.
NASA has already spent $9 billion on the Constellation program. According to The New York Times, NASA will have to spend another $2.5 billion to cancel their contracts. According to the U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, an independent panel of space experts commissioned by the White House, a manned flight to the moon would cost the government another $3 to $6 billion annually.
While large defense firms like Lockheed and Boeing stand to lose billions financially from this budget proposal, small companies like Space Exploration Technologies Corp. will benefit greatly from the new budget. SpaceX recently won a $1.6 billion contract from NASA to build rockets to transport cargo.
However, some are unhappy with Obama’s proposal. “When the president says that he’s going to cancel Constellation, I can tell you that to muster the votes and to overcome that, it’s going to be very, very difficult,” said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). Florida will likely lose approximately 7,000 jobs when the space shuttle program is canceled.
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