Artists conception of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft in orbit
New Course for Space Exploration Promotes Private Firms
Wall Street Journal
The Obama administration appears set to chart a new course for U.S. space exploration by promoting the use of private companies to ferry astronauts into orbit, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ares I-X lifts off from the Cape - possibly the one and only launch of the program.
Exclusive:Obama Backs New Launcher and Bigger NASA Budget
ScienceInsider
President Barack Obama will ask Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans to the Moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars, ScienceInsider has learned. The president chose the new direction for the U.S. human space flight program Wednesday at a White House meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, according to officials familiar with the discussion. NASA would receive an additional $1 billion in 2011 both to get the new launcher on track and to bolster the agency’s fleet of robotic Earth-monitoring spacecraft.
Looks like there was not any real news generated by today’s meeting between President Barack Obama and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at the White House. Space News reported via Twitter: A senior NASA official reiterated today that the WH intends to wait until the February budget rollout to unveil new plan. In lieu of an actual plan, the White House reaffirmed the President’s commitment to do something in space, Florida […]
President Obama held an astronomy event at the White House on Wednesday night.
Barack Obama has honored physicist Stephen Hawking with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
John Kelly: Reality check on Obama space promises
Florida Today
“Let me be clear,” the president said, “we cannot cede our leadership in space. That’s why I am going to close the gap, ensure that our space program doesn’t suffer when the shuttle goes out of service.”
His goal was “making sure that all of those who work in the space industry in Florida do not lose their jobs when the space shuttle is retired because we cannot afford to lose their expertise.”
President Barack Obama talks on the telephone to the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis from the Oval Office, Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Official White House photo by Pete Souza.
Below is a transcript of the call that President Barack Obama put in to the space shuttle Atlantis yesterday. During the call, he chats with the crew and promises to name a new NASA Administrator soon.
Barack Obama under fire from Nasa over plans to slash budget The Daily Telegraph The president-elect’s team is developing plans to scrap the new Ares rocket, designed to blast a new generation of astronauts into space, Nasa advisers said. The team is also investigating whether military Delta IV and Atlas V rockets, already more than 20 years old, could be adapted more cheaply. Nasa insiders say that that possibility was […]
Obama Team Considers NASA Use of Modified Military Rockets Wall Street Journal “President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, considering ways to reduce the cost and risk associated with manned space exploration, has broached the idea of using modified U.S. military rockets to launch the eventual replacement for the space shuttle. “No decision has been made and the concept raises major technical, funding and policy issues. But in recent weeks, the transition […]
Does Obama Want to Ground NASA’s Next Moon Mission? Time Magazine “NASA is right to be uneasy about just what Obama has planned for the agency since his position on space travel shifted – a lot – during the campaign. A year before the election he touted an $18 billion education program and explicitly targeted the new moon program as one he’d cut to pay for it. In January of […]
