Obama Used the Deficit as Excuse to End NASA Space Exploration Program (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | An article in the New Yorker purports to show why the Obama administration canceled the Constellation space exploration program, a controversial decision that haunts it to this day. The excuse was the budget deficit Obama caused.

The crucial passage of the article, which uses leaked memos to show how the Obama presidency unraveled, quotes a memo from November 2009 that was written by "advisers," states, in part, "Especially in light of our new fiscal context, it is not possible to achieve the inspiring space program goals discussed during the campaign."

The "new fiscal context" in question was a $6 trillion hole the Obama administration had blown into the deficit as a result of its spending policies. A $900 billion stimulus package had already been passed. At the time the administration was locked in a struggle to pass a health care reform proposal that has turned out to have a multitrillion-dollar price tag. The persistent economic downturn, thanks to Obama policies, has decreased tax revenues.

Obama advisers were invoking the deficit as an excuse to cancel a space exploration program initiated by the previous administration. The deficit was not invoked when selling the stimulus package, the health care reform law, or any other Obama spending that the administration actually favored. The deficit was not the reason the Obama administration tried to gut NASA's centerpiece program. It was a threadbare excuse.

The Augustine Committee, which Obama had convened the previous spring, had already come back with a number of proposals for space exploration going forward. It had proposed changing the launch vehicle architecture used by Constellation to one it thought was cheaper and simpler. Nevertheless an increase of $3 billion a year for NASA would be necessary to execute a meaningful program, whether it focused on an Earth approaching asteroid or going back to the moon.

Instead the Obama administration chose to scrap the space exploration program indefinitely. Congress rebelled and ordered the funding of the Orion Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle and the heavy lift space launch system in advance of a space exploration program to take place starting in the 2020s.

The making and rapid unmaking of Obama space policy is a study in mendacity, lack of vision and duplicity. If President John F. Kennedy proudly announced, "We chose to go to the moon!" Obama said, in effect, we chose to stay right here.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120124/sc_ac/10877141_obama_used_the_deficit_as_excuse_to_end_nasa_space_exploration_program

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