Yesterday’s Tallahassee Democrat editorial, Our Opinion: Saving Constellation is a noble mission, is an endorsement of both Project Constellation and the efforts by Florida’s interim Senator, George LeMieux, to amend the FAA Reauthorization bill to further restrict the Administration and NASA’s every-eager-to-please-the-Administration senior management from cutting into Constellation’s progress.
That Congress feels the need to go beyond language currently in the Budget, sometimes referred to as the Shelby language, that prevents the Administration from taking any actions against Project Constellation unless approval is obtained from the 4 heads of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees is as surprising as it is sad. While the Administration and its people at NASA continue to more or less act as though the proposed termination of Constellation is a done deal, the sense of Congress on Constellation is anything but in favor of the lobotomy that has been proposed for NASA by the Administration in its 2011 NASA Budget. One could be excused for thinking that, given the discontent in Congress over ending Constellation, that NASA’s leadership would move cautiously in taking any actions that might imperil Constellation on the not-so-off-chance that Congress decides to instead continue with the program of record. Instead, it’s been just the opposite.
For space explorers
For space explorers