Obama Scrubs NASA's Manned Moon Missions
Although NASA will get a budget increase for 2011, plans to return humans to the moon by 2020 would be officially scrapped, because the program is "over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation," according to the White House.
Constellation's demise would mean that NASA will have no plans for manned space flight beyond the final shuttle launch in fall 2010. Instead the U.S. will have to rely on other governments, such as existing Russian craft, to ferry people to the International Space Station.
The news has actually been expected since last September, when an independent panel known as the Augustine Committee determined that Constellation would require large budget increases to land even a handful of astronauts back on the moon before 2020.
U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to scrap the program is based on Constellation being "over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation due to a failure to invest in critical new technologies," according
