Two months ago, a letter to the president written by Neil Armstrong, James Lovell, and Eugene Cernan warned
the accompanying decision to cancel the Constellation program, its Ares 1 and Ares V rockets, and the Orion spacecraft, is devastating.
Like many others, I was dismayed and concerned by this.
Some said this was overreacting. Some said this was premature. Some said it was nonsense. Obama's response to the dust up was to provide a clear statement emphasizing his commitment
The bottom line is nobody is more committed to manned space flight, to human exploration of space than I am. (Applause.)
So why is it today's news reports....
Nasa has begun to wind down construction of the rockets and spacecraft that were to have taken astronauts back to the Moon — effectively dismantling the US human spaceflight programme despite a congressional ban on its doing so.
This is not some low-level whispering campaign. This is not some speculative reading of the tea leaves. This is coming from the top.
The head of Nasa, Major-General Charlie Bolden — an Obama appointee — has now written to aerospace contractors telling them to cut back immediately on Constellation-related projects costing almost $1 billion (£690 million), to comply with regulations requiring them to budget for possible contract termination costs.
So how do we square the president's statement with this new development? Easily....
Private rocket developers, to whom Mr Obama proposes outsourcing the task of carrying crews and cargo to the International Space Station after the shuttle fleet retires, are making advances. Ten days ago Elon Musk, a spaceflight entrepreneur — and founder of the online payment system PayPal — launched a near-flawless test flight of his Falcon 9 rocket, which is designed to take payloads and ultimately human beings into space. [emphasis added]
Gee... what a novel idea. Let's outsource the government program. Why didn't we think of that earlier? I can see it now.....
Who needs the Man in the Moon when we have Mickey?!