With Obama Administration and NASA officials
putting nails in the coffin of NASA's
Constellation-program return to the moon, details were subsequently released of what the new plan will be.
The word that has not come out yet, though, is whether NASA will be embarking on the "Flexible Path" plan suggested by the Augustine panel, that includes the potential manned asteroid mission.
With both Ares being cancelled, and the panel's report
having recommended (PDF; pp.39) two of its three options as an Ares I continuation or a new 'Ares lite' rocket, that leaves the last of their three proposed options:
- "A more directly Shuttle-derived launcher, which requires three launches for a crew mission plus one commercial launch of crew to low-Earth orbit."
Note the "commercial" launch, alongside the newly-revealed $6 billion towards private space. So this suggests the flexible path can, and likely will, be taken despite the total cancellation of Ares. Further description from the report on the launch method (pp. 86):
"Variant 4B is the Shuttle extension variant. This variant includes the only foreseeable way to close the gap in U.S. human-launch capability. As shown in Figure 6.4.1-1, this variant extends the Shuttle to 2015 at a minimum safe-flight rate. Shortly after the Shuttle is retired, commercial service picks up the ferrying of crew to the ISS until its retirement in 2020. This variant also takes advantage of synergy with the Shuttle by developing the more directly Shuttle-derived heavy-lift vehicle."
Reports of the past couple weeks have not noted anything about the Shuttle's extension, so it's possible Obama's plan will rely more heavily on the commercial launches (which would be an economically-inclined decision, timely in this political climate).
The 2011 budget proposal, with all the goodies, comes along this week.
Obama's 2011 budget proposal---and it's subsequent details on the future of NASA---has arrived, and with it the official word that the Constellation program is cancelled.
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