US President Barack Obama has outlined the US space programme and Nasa’s development milestones at a space conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Obama proposed using commercial spacecraft to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), a modified Orion capsule developed as an emergency return spacecraft and a powerful new rocket.
According to the president, spacecraft for crew transfers to the ISS can be developed by private firms quicker and for less money than continuing with Nasa’s Constellation programme, which is over the budget and behind schedule.
The space programme does not completely cancel the Constellation programme, it looks instead to create a crewless version of the Orion to be launched to the ISS and serve as an emergency craft for astronauts on the station.
The president also focused on the need for Nasa to plan for a set of crewed flights to test and prove the systems required for exploration beyond low Earth orbit.
“And by 2025, we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the moon into deep space,” Obama said.
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By GlobalDataThe president also spoke of plans to send astronauts to an asteroid beyond the moon for the first time.
“By the mid 2030s, I believe we will be able send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth,” he said.
The fiscal year 2011 budget proposal increases Nasa’s budget by $6bn over the next five years to fund the plans.
