Obama Budget Cancels NASA Constellation Program!

Today in the Richmond Times Dispatch, President Obama unveiled his budget proposal, all $3.83 Trillion, which brings on Billions of Debt, and increases the deficit. Gee, saw that coming, so much for fiscal responsibility. However, the biggest thing that jumped right out of the page... Cancelling the Constellation Program at NASA! Legislation was written into NASA's funding last year to prohibit this without congressional approval.

According to cnet.com and other known news sources, the Obama Administration is cancelling the Next Generation of NASA's manned spaceship. The current Space Shuttle Fleet, which did most of the heavy lifting in construction of the International Space Station (I.S.S.), and pride of the American Space Agency is scheduled for decommission at the end of this year. The problem was seen many years ago that a replacement would be needed and ready to maintain the crews and supplies aboard the I.S.S.

So the Constellation program was born, two different types of rockets, for many different applications. The Ares I rocket was designed to take the new Orion Space Capsule up into space. The Ares I rocket and Orion Space Capsule could be used to bring crew back and forth from the I.S.S. The Ares V rocket was the heavy lifter for supplies and possibly a Next Generation Lunar Lander. Another words, the two could have worked together or separately in order to satisfy the necessity of the mission and save money.

Click Here to see a YouTube video of the Constellation Program in Action!

Now, The Obama Administration, wants to scrap the Constellation program all together and rely on commercial or private companies to provide the rockets and the capsules to get our astronauts to the station. However, none of the current "commercial" companies have a rocket that can fulfill the needs of NASA by NEXT YEAR! So, if the commercial companies aren't able to come up with a transportation system quick, in order to keep the American Manned Space Program alive than we better really start working on our relationship with the Russians.

Currently, the Russians are the only other country on the PLANET capable of getting crew and supplies to the I.S.S. Lets review, how is our relationship with Russia anyway? Hmmm, lately, its been quite strained. So, I certainly hope we don't upset the Russians while we have an American on the International Space Station. Oh, and what exactly is Obama's plan if the Russians refuse to carry our astronauts up? The Russians must really like this, they could basically take squatters rights to the most sophisticated piece of technology ever created, this is CRAZY!

Click Here to read about everyday technologies that were born because of NASA research.