Orion Crew Capsule Is Back In The Budget, But Only As An Emergency Vehicle

President Barack Obama spoke to about 200 people at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, saying that he is "100 percent committed to the future of NASA." The President had a mockup of the Orion crew capsule as a backdrop for the speech, which earlier this week he decided should be back in the NASA budget as an escape vehicle for ISS.

NASA Photo

Obama said that he does not see a return to the moon as an appropriate step to further space exploration. "We've been there before…there is a lot more of space to explore."

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Obama said that NASA would finalize a rocket design by 2015, and then build it. "That's at least two years earlier than the previous program [Constellation] ..that was behind schedule and over budget," he said. He went on to say that he expects that manned spacecraft will be orbiting Mars by the mid 2030's, with manned landings planned shortly after.

Joined on the podium by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Obama defended himself against some who had as recently as this week criticized his approach to human spaceflight. "The bottom line is that no one is more committed…to human spaceflight than I am. But we've got to do it different."

Orion Artists Concept

The Los Angeles Times reports that Obama plans to put and additional $6 billion into the NASA budget over the next several years. Still, he expects private companies to take over the business of shuttling astronauts and cargo to ISS. "Space exploration is not a luxury, not an afterthought in America's brighter future," he said. "It is an essential part of that quest. What we are looking for is not just to continue on the same path. We want to leap into the future, we want major breakthroughs, a transformative agenda for NASA."

After the speech, Obama toured the SpaceX launch complex 40, where the company is readying the Falcon 9 heavy lift rocket for a test flight in the next few months, as well as the Dragon cargo module which SpaceX says could be converted into a manned spacecraft fairly easily.

SpaceX Dragon Artists Concept

While some aerospace jobs in Florida and Texas will be lost under President Obama's new plan, senior administration officials continue to say that it will add 2,500 more jobs than the Constellation program would have.

FMI: www.whitehouse.gov, www.nasa.gov