The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has released a statement outlining the “new”, call it “new” v 2.0, NASA plan. It replaces the one that was announced on February 1st and has seen so few supporters that you could fit them all in a phone booth.
First, we’re not sure why OSTP is releasing this as it was our naive assumption that NASA was responsible for our nation’s space program. Beyond that niggling issue is the much bigger issue–Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan released an open letter today that…well, blasts the White House’s space policy. Since the new one pre-announced today is really the same as the old, we doubt moving some of the chairs on the ship’s deck will change Armstrong’s, Lovell’s, and Cernan’s view.
The White House has messed-up so badly that anything other than continuing the Constellation Program is likely DOA on Capitol Hill now.