Moon Shot (Down)

The most depressing thing about Obama's budget proposal is that he's killing NASA's Constellation program to return to the moon.

The space agency's budget would grow to $19 billion in 2011 under the proposed budget released on Monday, with an emphasis on science and less spent on space exploration.

It "adds $6 billion to NASA's budget over five years and draws upon American ingenuity to enable us to embark on an ambitious 21st Century program of human space exploration," the budget proposal reads.

But the plan ends the Constellation program "which was planning to use an approach similar to the Apollo program to return astronauts back to the Moon 50 years after that program's triumphs."

The budget notes that an independent panel found the moon program was years behind schedule.

"Instead, we are launching a bold new effort that invests in American ingenuity for developing more capable and innovative technologies for future space exploration," it reads.

The new budget, which is subject to change by Congress, also extends operations at the International Space Station past its planned retirement date of 2016, suggesting such potential additions as inflatable space habitats.

Obama's proposal hands over more space operations to the commercial sector, saying it will create thousands of new jobs and hold costs down.

Now, the new commercial spaceflight jobs are a bonus for sure, but there's just not a lot of direct quarterly profit in flying to the moon on your own dime.  Still, commercial space flight opportunities are gaining speed and investment.

We'll see how it goes.  Space flight is something China, Russia, and India are looking into as well.