Obama Tells John Glenn: Space Program is a Waste of Money; House Committee Rejects Obama Plan to Kill Space Exploration

During a meeting at the White House Monday with former astronaut and former Democratic Senator John Glenn, President Obama told this American hero that the space program is a waste of money, and that we can't afford it, according to sources who talked with Glenn after the meeting. The President was described as "disrespectful, and uninterested," and cut off Glenn when he was speaking. The meeting was characterized as a "disaster."

No one should be surprised. Candidate Obama had called for the end of manned space flight early in his campaign, and only decided to make some vague promises to change course, in order to win the Florida primary. The budget the White House submitted to Congress in February proposed to end manned exploration. This was resoundingly rejected by the Senators responsible for authorizing NASA's budget last week, and by the House authorizing committee, Monday night.

Late Monday evening, the bipartisan leadership of the House Committee on Science & Technology released its draft bill to authorize NASA's budget for the next five years. It was sponsored by Committee chair Bart Gordon (D-TN) and ranking Member Ralph Hall (R-TX), and by subcommittee chair Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and ranking Member Pete Olson (R-TX). The bill rejects every proposed action from the White House to end manned space exploration, and basically restores the Constellation program. It goes even farther in this effort than the Senate authorization bill, voted up by Committee last week.

The House bill states explicitly that exploration should be carried out "in a manner that builds on the investments made to date in the Orion, Ares 1, and heavy lift projects...rather than discarding them." The Senate bill is not explicit on Ares. The House bill reaffirms NASA's 2008 authorization, which approved Constellation, and explicitly includes exploring the Moon. Commercial crew is authorized at $50 million for FY11, in contrast to the Senate bill, which authorizes $612 million, essentially neutering the program.

The House Science & Technology Committee will mark up the bill Thursday morning. If both bills pass the House and Senate, there will have to be a conference committee to work out the differences. That should not be hard, since the thrust is the same, and in many ways the details are not significant. This is really a holding action, to stop the destruction of NASA. There won't be any real Moon or Mars program, until Obama is gotten out of the White House.