New
York Times: Two key elements of President Obama's space
policy—lowering the priority of a manned mission to the
Moon; increasing NASA'S reliance on commercial launch
vehicles—involve canceling NASA's costly home-grown
launcher, Ares. But if Ares could be made more cheaply, could
it survive? The head of NASA's Moon program, Jeffrey Hanley,
was pursuing that option when he was removed last week from his
position. Two senators, John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) and Kay
Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), have asked NASA's inspector general to
"examine whether this or other recent actions by NASA were
intended or could reasonably have been expected to foreclose
the ability of Congress to consider meaningful
alternatives."
