U.S. President Barack Obama has proposed drastic changes to NASA’s manned Constellation lunar mission and the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program in the U.S. government’s 2011 fiscal year budget.
    The budget terminates NASA’s work on Orion, the follow-up vehicle to the space shuttle; ending development on two NASA rockets designed to fly manned missions to the moon while handing over space transportation and future human exploration mission to private commercial companies.
    NASA, which receives $18 billion for its yearly budget, will redirect funds allocated for the Constellation program to research projects that include robotics and other technologies needed to prepare for an eventual human mission to Mars. According to NASA, the agency already has spent $9 billion on Constellation and likely would owe millions more to cancel existing contracts with prime contractors ATK Launch Systems, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Boeing. Lockheed Martin is the lead contractor on the Orion capsule.
    The budget also splits the NPOESS program between separate projects headed by the U.S. Department of Defense and a partnership between NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), according to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
    “The new system will resolve this challenge by splitting the procurements. NOAA and NASA will take primary responsibility for the afternoon orbit, and [the Pentagon] will take primary responsibility for the morning orbit. The agencies will continue to partner in those areas that have been successful in the past, such as a shared ground system,” the OSTP said in a statement.
    NPOESS, a joint program between the U.S. military and the U.S. Department of Commerce, has stalled due to a lack of interest by the military to continue providing 50 percent of the program’s funding. The program’s initial estimated cost of $6.5 billion has doubled due to development problems on NPOESS sensors, causing launch dates to be postponed by several years, according to the OSTP.
    Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman both have NPOESS contracts that would have to be resolved if the program was dismantled. The OSTP said that it was still working on the details of how to conduct the program split.
    Obama’s decisions drew sharp divisions between NASA and commercial industry supporters in both public and private sectors.
    U.S. Commercial Spaceflight Federation President Bretton Alexander, welcomed the President’s decision during a conference call with other commercial space company CEOs. “The commercial crew initiative will create thousands of new high-tech jobs, help open the space frontier with lower-cost launches and inspire a new generation with high-profile missions. This initiative is on par with the government Airmail Act that spurred the growth of early aviation and led to today’s passenger airline industry, which generates billions of dollars annually for the American economy.”
    SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose company was contracted by NASA in December 2008 to transport supplies to the International Space Station under the COTS program, also voiced support for the President’s budgetary plan while criticizing NASA’s political support. SpaceX said it will be ready to fly humans into space in three years for about $20 million a seat — opening the door to America’s future as a true space-faring nation. “People should be relieved. It is important to separate comments from vested interests from people who cannot be swayed by any rational argument and believe that the answer has to be that funding continues in their district,” said Musk.
    Strong opposition to Obama’s NASA program cuts, however, came from both houses of Congress and both sides of the aisle. U.S. Appropriations Committee member Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), said he was troubled by the termination of the Constellation program. “The sheer lack of details on the administration’s plan is frustrating, and I am not satisfied that what the president is proposing to do with these funds is better than simply going forward with the Constellation program, and I can understand why so many of us in Congress are up in arms. But the introduction of the president’s budget is only the beginning of what will be a very lengthy budget process, and I will do everything in my power to ensure NASA and its 3,500 civil servants and contractors are not forgotten,” Voinovich said in a statement.
     Some commercial companies also joined the President’s critics with their own concerns, including Lockheed Martin, which released a statement Feb. 4 condemning the budget, “We are keenly disappointed in the administration’s budget proposal. … Significant investment has already been made by the nation and private industry in Orion, which is human rated to provide a level of safety unmatched by any previous or currently proposed crewed vehicles. Nearly 4,000 people at more than 500 commercial companies and hundreds of small business suppliers across the country have worked diligently on the Orion project to support the nation’s human spaceflight efforts.”
    However, the decision to shift the U.S. space program’s reliance toward commercial entities was cosponsored by a presidential space advisory panel created in 2009 and chaired by former Lockheed Martin Chairman Norman Augustine. The panel advised the president that, “allowing companies to build and launch their own rockets and spacecraft to carry American astronauts into orbit would save money and also free up NASA to focus on more ambitious, longer-term goals,” according to a White House statement. Lockheed Martin, like Orbital Sciences, qualifies to receive commercial funding, as it remains a leading commercial manufacturer for the U.S. space and military industry.
     Alexander believes that one of the key benefits of the budget is that it creates jobs. “Investing in commercial spaceflight will allow us to create U.S. jobs rather than continuing to send billions of dollars to Russia to fly our astronauts to space. With so many capable American companies here at home, why would we send all of U.S. human spaceflight to Russia? Let’s create those thousands of jobs right here in the United States,” said Alexander.
    But Lockheed Martin said that the decision will do more harm than good and hinted that it will take its fight to the political arena. “The president’s budget proposal will, of course, be reviewed by Congress and, ultimately, will require congressional approval. As the budget process moves forward, Lockheed Martin is committed to working with Congress, the administration and NASA to ensure a safe, viable and robust space exploration program that does not cede U.S. leadership in space.”