A provision in a bill passed by Congress this week that allots $59 billion to amp-up the war in Afghanistan contains orders for NASA to not cancel any contracts in its embattled Constellation moon program.
SLIDE SHOW: Five Canceled NASA Missions
An independent review board convened by the White House determined the program, which aimed to land astronauts on the moon by 2020, had no chance of reaching its goal because the government failed to fund it properly. The Obama administration wants to end the program and invest in new technologies and commercial spaceflight instead. Bills pending in the House and Senate kill Constellation in name, but keep some of its programs, including a capsule known as Orion.
The United States has spent about $9 billion on Constellation so far, with total program costs estimated at more than $110 billion.
WIDE ANGLE: NASA's Moon Mission Scrapped
Buried in 92 pages of Senate amendments to the war bill, however, is a paragraph about NASA stating that funds previously appropriated for Constellation should remain available for Constellation contracts and that “performance of such Constellation contracts may not be terminated for convenience by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in fiscal year 2010."
Image: The Constellation's Ares I (NASA)
Tags: Ares Rocket, NASA, Rockets, Space Politics
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