The Constellation program is not dead. The program has not been cancelled. The FY2011 NASA budget proposal scrapping Constellation, Ares I, Ares V, and Orion has not been approved by Congress at this point. Also, HR 3288 passed last December included a resolution that President Obama could not divert any FY2010 funds for cancellation or termination of Constellation program. So until Congress approves new NASA FY2011 budget, the Constellation program will continue work. This video was produced by members of the Constellation team at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
As you can imagine, the proposed cancellation of Constellation program has left a large number of NASA employees and their contractors (contractors outnumber NASA employees almost 4 to 1) dispirited and worried about their future. At a time when our economy is still in recession, NASA will be laying off thouasands of more workers, both government and private, beyond the planned layoffs due to the space shuttle retirement. This will particularly affect economically depressed states like Alabama even harder.
Congressional reaction to NASA budget proposal have has been negative. A hearing (webcast link) held today by the Subcommittee on Space & Aeronautics is just one preview of the upcoming debate in Congress over NASA FY2011 budget. Judging from the reactions in the hearing, the proposed new budget is going to have a hard time being passed.
One of the comments that have been made by President Obama's administration is that the new course emphasizing commercial spaceflight is comparable to the rise of commercial aviation. Yet, commercial aviation was successfully largely because a market for mail distribution contracted by US Post Office existed to generate revenue for the industry allowing for a progressive government policy. Outside of the limited market in low Earth orbit offered by the ISS, no other market exist for manned spaceflight. FY2011 budget provided no plan for expanding LEO market or how commercial spaceflight was going to generate revenue. The new budget has left NASA with no mission objectives and essentially left it rudderless. Without clearly define goals and actual detailed plan, the agency will become even more vulnerable to future budget cuts which could end up threatening even NASA's successful robotic space exploration enterprise. Paul Spudis published a new article online at Air & Space discussing the inherent problems with the new budget proposal. Paul Spudis and I do not agree on the path to be taken, but we do agree as to the purpose of human spaceflight and we both recognize that the new FY2011 proposal is a step in the wrong direction.
Here is an article from Scott Horowitz in The Space Review discussing some of the misconceptions of the Constellation program.
Update: NASA does not design or build its own rockets. The Constellation program Ares I and Orion spacecraft is being designed and built by commercial contractors according to the mission and design criteria established by NASA. NASA only manages the oversight and review of Constellation program.