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White House NASA Budget Faces Tough Fight on Capitol Hill February 2, 2010 -- The Space Coast's two Congressional representatives have come out strongly against President Barack Obama's proposal to cancel NASA's Constellation program, which was supposed to send astronauts back to the moon. The White House budget request, released on Monday, instead asks Congress for an additional $6 billion over five years to pay commercial companies to develop a spacecraft that could carry astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said today such a rocket could be ready as soon as 2016. Space Coast Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas, a Democrat, calls the plan “unacceptable.” “Though I welcome the investments in infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center,” she said in a statement, “not knowing when, or even if, the next human spaceflight launches will occur makes it difficult to retain the Space Coast’s highly skilled workforce and maintain America’s international leadership in space.” Republican Congressman Bill Posey of Rockledge released a statement saying the President’s proposal could mean “a slow death to our nation’s human space flight program.” “While I commend the efforts to encourage U.S.-based commercial space endeavors and I agree that we should use them when they become available for getting our astronauts to the International Space Station,” Posey said, “I am very concerned about NASA placing all of its eggs in that basket as the budget does.” Several other powerful Congressional representatives are also strong backers of the Constellation program. Congress must sign off on the president’s budget request before it can become law.
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