Obama is Going to Florida!

Obama plans Florida space summit to defend his vision for NASA
Orlando Sentinel

In the latest sign that his NASA vision is in peril, President Barack Obama will announce today his plans to host a space summit in Florida on April 15.

The move follows weeks of criticism from Congress about his proposal to cancel NASA’s Constellation moon-rocket program in favor of an approach that would push NASA engineers to develop new technologies while using commercial rocket companies for future astronaut missions.

Lawmakers have called the approach both “vague” and “risky,” but the Obama administration didn’t appear to back down in announcing the summit. An administration official labeled Constellation as “fundamentally un-executable” and said the conference would “focus on the goals and strategies in this new vision.”

As he did with a recent health-care summit, Obama is expected to use the meeting to try to build consensus.

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