Links: BBC News Article /

President Obama canceled NASA's Constellation Program, calling it "over budget, behind schedule, lacking innovation, and a drain on other US space activities". Some at NASA are calling the review process used to make this decision flawed. On the other hand, we seem to remember a group of ex-NASA engineers calling the Constellation Program flawed. Could everyone be right?

President Barack Obama has cancelled the American project designed to take humans back to the Moon.

The Constellation programme envisaged new rockets and a new crewship called Orion to put astronauts on the lunar surface by 2020.

But in his 2011 budget request issued on Monday, Mr. Obama said the project was too costly, "behind schedule, and lacking in innovation".

US space agency NASA has already spent $9 Billion (£5.6 Billion) on the programme.

The president said Constellation was draining resources from other US space agency activities. He plans instead to turn to the private sector for launch services.

"While we're cancelling Constellation, we're not cancelling our ambitions", said Jim Kohlenberger, chief of staff at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

(Source: BBC)