Okay. The president has spoken. What say the Congress?

The president says forget George Bush's return to the moon. Forget the new Ares rocket or the Orion spacecraft. Private enterprise will take over that end of things while NASA goes back to the drawing board yet another time.

So never mind this spaceship and whatever goes with it..

(Orion, right)

..we've changed our minds all over again. As an, of course, "unidentified" White House source said, "We don't need to go back to the moon." And that's official.

Never mind using the moon as a convenient training ground for Mars, as communications or research base. Never mind picking up where the woefully brief visits of Apollo left off. After all, as a famous engineer once told me, "It's too bad the moon is where it is..we might go somewhere interesting.." And so maybe we will..when we get around to it. For now, though, let's just go back and spend another bunch of years talking about what we ought to do and designing a whole new kind of rocketpower for whatever it is we decide it is..if we do..decide.

Again.

Meanwhile, provided we can still get to Low Earth Orbit, we American humans will keep flying in circles just as we have since the last Apollo landing in 1972. Straight lines are not in the plan for the foreseeable future.

So be it.

All that being said, the president's program (never think that NASA calls the shots when it comes to human spaceflight) has some interesting features. He says he's laying the foundation for real exploration of the inner solar system. Key to it is development of a new heavy-lift rocket that could take us where we want to go much faster and with more capability.

As NASA Administrator, Charlie Bolden (Left) said, "Imagine trips to Mars that take weeks instead of nearly a year, people fanning out across the inner solar system, exploring the moon, asteroids and Mars nearly simultaneously in a steady stream of 'firsts,' and imagine all of this being done collaboratively with nations around the world. That is what the president's plan for NASA will enable, once we develop the new capabilities to make it a reality."

Wow.

Congress ought to like that, right? Or do you think they'll object to throwing out the 9-billion dollars already spent on the Ares rocket program and the jobs that will be lost in this new "re-tooling." Ya think? Of course, they haven't done much to prevent retiring the shuttles, thereby eliminating the only vehicle the US owns that can carry astronauts; and now, there is nothing on the drawing boards to replace it. But I digress..

Here are the Finer points of the White House/NASA plan:

--Dump the Constellation program. Check.

--R&D "to support" a future heavy-lift rocket system.

Question: A heavy-lift rocket system to go where? No goal defined as usual. Comment: Having no goal or target is too nebulous for young poeple who are looking for a job with a future. And, by the way, there was a heavy-lifter under development in the Constellation plan.

--Working with industry, NASA will build, fly and test in orbit key technologies such as automated, autonomous rendezvous and docking, in-orbit propellant transfer (an orbiting filling station).

Question: Test in what vehicle? A commercial taxi? Remember, the shuttle's retiring and we've just eliminated the planned next generation spacecraft. Just asking.

Comment: Russia has been using automated spacecraft with autonomous rendezvous and docking for many years. Japan now has autonomous rendezvous in its HTV spacecraft. Why not just use their systems and save a few bucks? They use a lot of ours.

--The plan foresees "a steady stream of precursor robotic exploration missions to scout locations and demonstrate technologies.."

Question: Haven't we been doing that all along? Or are those cute little machines running around Mars just a figment?

--The White House plans to "free up" NASA to do all these things by making it sweet enough for private industry to step in and take over transport of American astronauts to space. Of course, industry will have to design and build a spacecraft that meets government safety standards for human flight, that can do rendezvous and docking and all that other good stuff.

Comment: We produced Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle and Station on a bid basis. NASA laid out the design and industry built it to spex. Then NASA operated it (still does for the time being). Under the White House plan, NASA will/or will not approve the vehicle industry provides and, it appears, will operate. NASA people will be passengers. Right now, industry is launching NASA unmanned spacecraft on its own rockets which are not "man-rated." Many of the newbies on the industrial side will find that getting that rating is a pretty big mouthful to chew. And don't expect some new-found generosity "in the name of the cause;" it has been my experience that the private sector rarely steps up to this challenge without a cost-plus contract. Turning it over to them leaves me wondering where it will go..how far behind the growing competition it will put us..and whether the president really cares.

--In that vein, I'd like to know how much influence the commercial space industry had in formulating this new policy.

Oh. And if we let the private guys do it (some romantics are comparing this to the 1930's, when the government gave franchises to private aviation companies to carry the mail), what will happen to the corps of astronauts now working for NASA? I suppose the private enterprisers can hire a few and the rest can get unemployment. That skill set has a fairly limited market.