Obama grounding space program, astronauts say

The American voyage into the unknown territories of space is over with President Obama's failure to fund the space program, according to an USA Today opinion piece by astronauts Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and Gene Cernan.

According to the three, each of whom commanded missions to the moon, previous administrations have kept in line with former President Kennedy's vision to explore the deepest pockets of our universe by funding various programs throughout the years. In 2005, NASA launched the Constellation program, which sought to send another astronaut to explore the moon and eventually Mars. But in his 2011 budget proposal, Obama failed to include funding, which would virtually end the program.

"Obama's advisers, in searching for a new and different NASA strategy with which the president could be favorably identified, ignored NASA's operational mandate and strayed widely from President Kennedy's vision," the astronauts said.

While Congress passed a bill that would allow NASA to develop rockets capable of carrying humans to the moon, Obama's 2012 budget reduced the program's funding significantly, Armstrong wrote.

In 2010, Obama predicted his plans for the space program would put an astronaut on Mars by the 2030s, promising $6 billion over five years to the agency.

Though the astronauts feel Obama has hacked up the space program, NASA was largely spared big cuts in Obama's budget proposal. The president's plan matched the 2010 funding of $18.7 billion but lacked the $2 billion promised to the space operation program.