Jacqui Goddard in Miami
America’s $150 billion plan for returning a man to the Moon has been plunged into uncertainty after President Obama ordered a review of the project because of increasing unease over the cost, time frame and safety.
A panel of experts will be set up to determine whether Nasa’s next generation of spacecraft — being developed to carry astronauts into orbit by 2015, to the Moon within the next decade and thereafter on a 250 million-mile voyage to Mars — should be revised or axed.
Chris Scolese, the acting head of Nasa, said that the panel would make a “detailed and thorough review of human spaceflight”. “We can expect that a new administration wants to understand where we are, and what’s the best way forward. Clearly if we are on the wrong path, we should change,” he said.
Coming after news of budget cuts, the move has raised fears of more delays to Nasa’s already faltering manned space programme, known as Constellation. Critics say that it risks compromising America’s space dominance just as Nasa prepares to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first lunar steps.
The review could accelerate job losses at Nasa and its contractors, hitting 10,000 once the space shuttle fleet is mothballed next year.
Uncertain of Mr Obama’s agenda for space — given his failure to appoint a new head of Nasa three months after the last one quit — many workers fear the worst. “This is the beginning of the end of US manned spaceflight.” one worker at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, said yesterday.
Others have welcomed news of a review, complaining that Constellation is dangerously flawed and overexpensive and echoing criticism by the President that Nasa is struggling against a “sense of drift”.
The review is not expected to result in a wholesale scrapping of Nasa’s Moon-shot plans, but will focus heavily on its controversial choice of hardware to do the job.
At particular issue is Ares 1, the rocket intended to launch the manned Orion spacecraft. Detractors claim that Ares could shake the astronauts to death because of violent vibrations, and that it risks crashing into its own launch tower — flaws that have driven a number of Nasa engineers to work on their own alternative rocket design, Direct 2, during their spare time.
“The point the President has made, that Nasa is an agency adrift, is correct,” said Dale Ketcham, director of the Space Research and Technology Institute.
Galaxy of presidents
Richard Nixon (1969-74) presided over the first manned Moon landing, by the crew of Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969
Gerald Ford (1974-77) oversaw the first unmanned landings on Mars by Viking probes in July 1976
Jimmy Carter (1977-81) initiated a review of US space policy that enabled the shuttle programme to move forward
Ronald Reagan (1981-89), an enthusiastic supporter of Nasa, oversaw the inaugural shuttle flight, the first US manned foray into space for six years
George H. W. Bush (1989-93) said that future space exploration was too expensive
Bill Clinton (1993-2001) cut Nasa's budget dramatically and removed human exploration from the agenda, preferring cheaper robots
George W. Bush (2001-09) vowed to get humans back on the Moon by 2020
Source: Nasa
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