Constellation Program Cancelled?

President Obama, in his economic budget plan for 2011, plans to cut the Constellation program of NASA in light of the recent budget plans for reducing the nation's deficit. With the space shuttle set to retire this year, the canceling of the Constellation program, which planned to be the next step in manned spacecraft with the Orion capsule and Ares rocket, means NASA will have to  look to private companies to man their space ventures, not to mention scrap the hopes of returning to the moon by 2020.

 

Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle

Commercial Spaceflight

Virgin Galactic revealed its SpaceshipTwo and VMS Eve, its mothership, on December 7, signifying how far the dream of space tourism has really come. SpaceshipTwo, now named Enterprise, is the first commercial spacecraft, and is expected to begin service in about a year and half. The company and spaceship are the brainchildren of Richard Branson.