The US has decided that it is a waste of cash sending men and women to the Moon or Mars.
President Obama in his 2011 budget decided that the Constellation programme envisaged new rockets and a new crewship called Orion to put astronauts on the lunar surface by 2020 was too costly, "behind schedule, and lacking in innovation".
Nasa has already spent $9 billion on the programme which Obama said was draining resources from other US space agency activities. He plans instead to turn to the private sector for launch services.
Jim Kohlenberger, chief of staff at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) said that while Obama was cancelling Constellation, the administration was not cancelling US ambitions.
It claimed that running the space race like it did 40 years ago was pointless and there should be game-changing new technology that can take us further, faster and more affordably into space.
Critics claimed the programme was never properly funded, and when it ran into technical difficulties its time schedule also began to slip.
It will cost Nasa $2.5 billion to close it completely and hit Florida, where the programme is being developed, hard.
Obama wants a pitiful amount of cash - $500 million in 2011 - to be used to incentivise private companies, to help them bring forward a new generation of launch systems to carry humans to and from space. This probably means that Beardie can get Virgin flights to the moon next.
The US has been looking for money to pay for its bail-out of incompetent bankers who stuffed up the economy. Giving vast amounts of cash to keep Wall Street bankers in their third houses was deemed more important for humanity than any space programme.
Since Apollo, NASA became a timid bureaucracy devoted only to maintaining its existence, not to achieving breakthroughs. That space-bound garbage truck (Shuttle) is proof of that.
Get NASA out of Earth orbit business and get them to focus on farther out stuff.
It's shocking that this President is going to put us in the back seat on this major front for discoveries which benefit mankind. The US relying on others for "a ride" is not the American way. Unfortunately there is a preponderance of uninformed eligible voters who thought they were getting a new Kennedy. Try the opposite of vision and courage.
On a lighter note:
For a really great educational and awe-inspiring experience visit NASA in person, but in the meantime you should check out the "spin offs" from these true genius-heros such as... the artificial heart developed from Space Shuttle fuel pump technology, or Life-Saving Light for children suffering from brain tumors, biodegradable "green" lubricants, etc. Every person who thinks we can divert NASA funding to the give-away welfare system... hello?? I hope you get behind me in line when we need heart surgery.
Check out: http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/
ENJOY... and be sure to thank a US Astronaut!