NASA Budget and Human Spaceflight Review

The Obama Administration yesterday provided more details on its Fiscal Year 2010 $18.69 billion budget request for NASA and directed an independent review of the current human spaceflight program.

The review panel will assess a number of architecture options, taking into account such objectives as: 1) expediting a new U.S. capability to support use of the International Space Station; 2) supporting missions to the Moon and other destinations beyond low Earth orbit; 3)stimulating commercial space flight capabilities; and 4) fitting within the current budget profile for NASA exploration activities.

A particular focus is likely to be whether the current Constellation architecture under development of Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles should be retained for NASA's human spaceflight or whether a proposal for a more "Direct" Shuttle derived architecture or use of existing or upgraded Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs) like those currently used for military and commercial unmanned launches (or some combination of the later two) would be more sustainable.

This is an interesting development. I am of course wary given some of President Obama's disastrous policy and personnel choices in other areas. However, space policy doesn't always divide along ideological lines and, given the choice of the highly respected Norm Augustine to head the panel, I will remain cautiously hopeful that the result may yield some needed improvements to our space efforts.