14 DAY TRIAL // Under the 2011 budget proposal, the American space agency would need to cancel its Project Constellation approach to go back to the Moon. Instead, it would invest about $6 billion in private companies, for developing space-bound space capsules and delivery systems. The plan was heavily criticized for lack of vision, and for putting thousands of highly-skilled individuals out of work. But now a senator proposes an interesting approach to continuing NASA participation in space exploration.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who is the chairman of the science and space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, proposes using the $6 billion that would otherwise go to private companies for developing a new heavy-lift rocket. The official believes that these funds could be put to much better use within NASA. Within Project Constellation, a heavy rocket was already included. Called the ARES V, the behemoth would have reached impressive sizes, and could have carried large amounts of cargo to low-Earth orbit (LEO) and beyond.
Nelson made the announcement as he was speaking to an audience on Match 19, near the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This facility is bound to be hit by the new measures hardest, as it is the home of the space shuttles. The new budget calls for the space shuttles to be retired this September, with only four flights remaining until then. At the conference, the senator said that he expected US President Barack Obama to look over his plans for space exploration again, and to set new, specific goals for space exploration, that the current vision lacks. Obama is due to speak in Florida on April 15, as he attempts to calm spirits and gain more support for his actions.
“Now, if he doesn't do that, it makes our job a little rougher. But I can tell you that we have a consensus that what we will do in the Senate at least is put money into aggressive [research and development] of a heavy lift [rocket]. And to try to take parts that we already have – and obviously what we already have are parts of the Ares rocket – and utilize that as we start to develop this heavy lift capability,” Nelson told his audience, as quoted by Space. “It's also my hope that we would get the funding in the budget that would continue the development of a spacecraft, call it Orion or Orion light or something completely different, but we're going to do that,” he added.