First moonwalker blasts Obama's space plan - Space- msnbc.com - 0 views
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Neil Armstrong moonwalker Obama man on the moon apollo 11 Eugene Cernan Apollo 13 cancel nasa back-to-moon program blasts first
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The first man to walk on the moon blasted President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s back-to-the-moon program on Tuesday, saying that the move is “devastating” to America’s space effort.
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The most controversial part of the president's policy is the cancellation of the Constellation program, which was aimed at developing a new generation of Ares rockets and Orion spacecraft to send astronauts into Earth orbit and beyond.
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Obama administration determined that the Constellation program could not fulfill NASA's goals on the required timetable.
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The letter notes that the U.S. space effort will be dependent for years to come on the Russians for transport to the International Space Station, at a cost of more than $50 million per seat.
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Armstrong and his colleagues complained that the cancellation would amount to wasting the roughly $10 billion that has been allocated to Constellation over the past five years.
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"America must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space," the astronauts said. "If it does, we should institute a program which will give us the very best chance of achieving that goal.
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The fact that Armstrong, arguably the world's most famous living astronaut, has now spoken out against NASA's change of plans is likely to focus additional attention on the debate over America's future in space.
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On the other side of the debate, the most outspoken Apollo-era advocate of NASA's new policy is the man who was Armstrong's co-pilot for the first moon landing: Buzz Aldrin.