Next (Small) Steps for NASA

A House committee has words of caution for federal space agency.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

NASA has long been the government agency meant to lead the charge to the future, at least in the public's imagination. A report to Congress from an independent body of experts has put NASA's future into question. In a hearing before the U.S. House of Representative's commmittee on science and technology, the panel said the Constellation program, meant to replace the aging space shuttle fleet and drive human space exploration, was "fatally flawed." To explain the issues that the experts found, where the problems come from, and where NASA might go from here is The Takeaway's go-to space expert, Miles O'Brien.

Guests:

Miles O'Brien

Hosted by:

Todd Zwillich

Contributors:

Molly Webster

Comments [1]

Nelson Bridwell

Actually, this headline is backwards. The House comittee had words of frustration (and anger) at the Augustine Comission, which suggested scrapping 4 years of work and billions of dollars on the Constellatin program, in order to pursue alternatives that are riskier, and in no ways better.

At issues are all of the large NASA budget cuts that have stretched out the time scale for when ISS support missions and the return to the Moon program can be realized.

Sep. 16 2009 03:22 PM

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