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Commissions (61)
Concepts (33)
Editorials (59)
Events (10)
Missions (13)
News Releases (56)
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An editorial by Bush Science Advisor Dr. John Marburger which basically explains the thinking behind the president's vision. One excerpt:
"The second presidential goal ensures a means of human transport beyond low Earth orbit. The idea is not simply to repeat the Apollo exercises, but to ensure a human presence to establish and oversee what must eventually become complex operations at the lunar base, the third goal. This is not a question of "colonization" but of enabling the development of serious and sophisticated infrastructure in a hostile environment in order to support subsequent exploration to Mars and elsewhere."
+ Read Article (Houston Chronicle)
"Almost three months ago, amid great fanfare, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a historic measure to open the door to private-sector spaceflight a measure that would allow entrepreneurs to take passengers on suborbital space trips.
But since then, the bill known as the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2024, or H.R. 3752 has languished without Senate action. And some in the infant space travel industry are increasingly worried the measure might just fizzle out."
+ Read Article (MSNBC)
"A presidential panel tasked to flesh out America's post-shuttle human space program will report to the White House next week about how to accomplish missions to the moon and beyond without a huge increase in NASA's annual budget."
+ Read Article (Discovery News)
"NASA has issued mission design requirements to three U.S. industry teams for a proposed mission to Jupiter and its three icy moons.
The requirements are also the first product formulated by NASA's new Office of Exploration Systems in Washington, the agency said Thursday."
+ Read Article (UPI)
Very positive interview with the director of NASA's Exploration Office. Talks about the feedback from congress and industry, the fact that they are looking at heavy-lift, the horizontal integration between the office and Space Science, Earth Science, and ISS programs.
MUST READ!
+ Read Article (The Space Review)
"As President Bush's approval rating has dipped to the lowest level since he took office, space enthusiasts insist that NASA's new challenge of sending astronauts to the moon and Mars will outlive the political future of the president who proposed it."
+ Read Article (Denver Post)
"NASA has issued its mission design requirements to three industry teams for a proposed mission to Jupiter and its three icy moons. The requirements are also the first product formulated by NASA's new Office of Exploration Systems in Washington."
+ Read News Release (NASA/JPL)
"A political showdown is looming this summer and fall over NASA's fiscal year 2025 budget request, which contains $866 million in new funding. Some $136 million of the proposed boost is earmarked to start President George W. Bush's new space exploration proposals. Neither house of Congress has acted on the plan yet, and though work has started on a bill to authorize both multi-year funding and a rationale for space exploration, most Hill staffers involved in the issue expect the authorization legislation to be left behind in the congressional rush to adjourn for the fall campaign."
+ Read Article (UPI)
"The surprising resistance to the project inside the US House of Representatives, which is where all federal spending programs begin, would suggest that NASA will fail to get enough of an increase in its top line budget to start serious work. So far, they have not even gotten a go-ahead to spend $6 million on initial studies. If this is so, then NASA will probably have to delay or revise not only the Moon-Mars initiative but will probably have to radically revise the planned Shuttle return-to-flight and the Space Station assembly schedules."
+ Read Article (The Space Review)
"A House-Senate conference committee has hammered out a budget resolution that endorses President Bush's visionary space plan, but how much money it ultimately will authorize to begin the project remains open to conjecture."
+ Read Article (SpaceDaily)
"Astronauts could go to the moon for as long as 90 days in the first step toward reaching President Bush's goal of sending a man to Mars, NASA says.
The preliminary plans provide the first glimpse of the next possible moon mission and how NASA intends to prepare for a Mars expedition. Extended moon visits were proposed by Bush in January as a steppingstone for the more complex task of reaching Mars. "
Editor's Note: I missed logging this story from earlier in the week. Apologies if you've read it already.
"Later during the visit, Nelson returned to the topic of U.S.-Chinese cooperation. So when are China and the United States going to cooperate together in space exploration, Mr Ambassador?"
I want us to go to Mars, Nelson said, and I think we ought to go to Mars together.
+ Read Article (Space.com)
"The conferees support the President's Vision for Exploration and believe the fiscal year 2025 funding for Function 250 should provide sufficient funding to initiate the process. Additionally, the bulk of the requested increase for fiscal year 2025 is for return to flight of the Space Shuttle and continued assembly and operations for the International Space Station. The Conferees hope that these two must-fund requirements will be taken into account during their consideration of the NASA appropriation."
Editor's Note: There was a lot of debate on this and it sometimes appeared that NASA's budget (and thus the new vision) would be scaled back. Perhaps the new Space Exploration Alliance of advocacy groups had some sway over this?
Our MVP commenter Harold LaValley pointed us to this article and I wanted to be sure I logged it. As Harold said, it contains many of the ideas we've been talking about & commenting on for the last few months. Must Read!
+ Read Article (SpaceRef.com)
"Twelve leaders of the Space Exploration Alliance announced today that their organizations would join in launching a "Moon-Mars Blitz" on Capitol Hill July 11-13. During this event, the organizations will bring their members to Washington to visit as many congressional members and staff as possible with a single message: "Fund NASA's requests for FY 2025 for starting the new Moon, Mars, and Beyond initiative."
+ Read Press Release (Space Exploration Alliance)
Editor's Note: When one person writes their member of congress, it is considered the support of forty constituents. Have you written your member of congress about the new Vision for Space Exploration?
Deficit, war costs may shortchange moon, Mars goals
"Four months after a ceremonious unveiling, President Bush's strategy to recapture the nation's Apollo-era glory by sending human explorers to the moon and Mars has stalled. After urgent calls for the White House to lead NASA's recovery from the Columbia shuttle accident with a new road map for exploration, Congress is scoffing at the $12 billion down payment."
+ Read Article (Houston Chronicle)
This article by guest columnist Mike Majeski talks about a possible design for the CEV, using an updated Gemini spacecraft he calls "Advanced Gemini". During the moon race of the 1960's, there was some talk of using Gemini to go to the moon, since it was smaller, lighter, and a more flexible design than the Apollo CSM. There were also several unbuild variants, such as "Big Gemini": a design which would have twice the crew and cargo capacity as the Apollo CSM, but with the same mass.
Editor's Note: I welcome further guest columnists; if you would like to write an article for Project Constellation, please let me know.
I am in the process of upgrading this site to Movable Type 3.0. One huge benefit will be increased protection from comment spam (ie no more comments from "Jenna Jameson")
For those of you who have already commented on the site (and aren't spammers), your future comments will be approved seamlessly and you do not need to take any action.
For new commenters, you will either need to 1) get a Typekey user account, or 2) specify a valid email address and I will need to approve your first comment before it appears on the site, then you are able to make additional comments as an approved commenter.
In addition to an improved comment experience, I will be updating the visual appearance of the site and adding the long awaited CEV Concept gallery, with all the Boeing/Lockheed/NASA artwork that's out there.
If you have any other suggestions of how I can improve the site, please let me know either via a comment to this weblog entry, or via email to jb-at-projectconstellation.us
Thanks, I hope you enjoy the Project Constellation site and will keep visiting!
Video is now available from the final Moon-Mars Commission hearing.
The hearing featured testimony from many experts from world space agencies including NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, and for the first time also included presentations by commission members. In addition, the "Space to the People!" panel included testimony from several space activist organizations like the National Space Society (NSS) and the Planetary Society.
+ Access Video
+ Moon-Mars Website
This is the official logo for NASA's Office of Exploration.
"NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., are now bustling with activity in the wake of President George W. Bush's plan, announced last Jan. 14, to revitalize the U.S. space program. Just as Project Apollo encompassed the attempt to reach the moon in the 1960s, the agency has named its new effort.
...
NASA is developing 15 White Papers -- a series of in-depth trade studies that would give detailed attention to each element of the Bush space plan -- moonships, Mars craft, new space boosters, advanced robots, new power technologies to run bases on the moon and expeditions out into deeper space venues."
+ Read Article (UPI)
Editor's Note: This article contains mention of the official logo for Project Constellation: "Three spheres --Earth, the moon and Mars -- are arrayed in sequence, with the streak of a rocket passing through each. A Latin inscription on the emblem says "Audentes Fortuna Juvat," which, translated into English, says "Fortune Favors the Bold."
If anybody comes across this logo, please contact me at jb-at-projectconstellation.us
"The commission tasked with fleshing out President George W. Bush's vision of pushing human space exploration beyond Earth orbit will layout a broad set of objectives for NASA when it reports back to the president.
The 10 members of the space commission expect to present President Bush with between 10 and 12 recommendations on how to set NASA and the nation on a multi-decade course of exploration to the moon, Mars and beyond."
+ Read Article (Space.com)
"President George W. Bush plans to make a major speech early this summer defending his plan for a new U.S. space exploration initiative, administration sources told United Press International.
Sources said although drafting the speech -- termed a vigorous call to support the president's new space exploration policy he announced last January -- has not yet begun, aides have been narrowing prospective dates and venues.
The speech apparently will be timed to coincide with a report by the presidential commission appointed earlier this year to review the space plan and seek broad public comment."
+ Read Article (UPI)
Editor's Note: This MUST-READ article also mentions that a comprehensize plan for reorganization of NASA is in the works, and will be "the most far-reaching revamping of NASA since its creation in 1958."
"It’s time to start thinking about commercialization and colonization of the Moon and Mars. Fifty years after the Wright Brothers, we had global airlines. Fifty years after the invention of the integrated circuit we have a trillion-dollar-a-year industry. Cell phones alone account for tens of billions of dollars of government auction revenue. We need to make the regulatory environment for 50 years after Apollo now. An American private property regime and capitalist economic system can encourage space commercialization and colonization. A utopian property regime and a communitarian economic system will keep out commercialization and leave colonization and exploration in the realm of governments."
+ Read Article (The Space Review)
"In an unprecedented show of unity, thirteen of the nations premier space advocacy groups, industry associations and space policy organizations have teamed up to support the new space exploration effort.
The organizations involved include: Aerospace Industries Association, Aerospace States Association, American Astronautical Society, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, California Space Authority, Florida Space Authority, The Mars Society, National Coalition of Spaceport States, National Space Society, The Planetary Society, ProSpace, Space Access Society and Space Frontier Foundation."
+ Space.com Article
+ AP Article
Editor's Note: I just recieved confirmation of this from the Mars Society as I'm a longtime member of that organization. This is huge and exciting news since in the past many of these groups have not cooperated well. Hopefully this new effort will be successful in answering some of the concerns voiced by critics of the new space initiative.
"The presidential commission studying NASA's goal of sending people to the Moon and Mars said yesterday that the space agency would have to make major changes in the way it does business if it wants to go ahead with the plan."
+ Read Article (NY Times)
Editor's Note: Couldn't agree more, and this has been said over and over. I'm eagerly awaiting the final report of the commission to see what changes they recommend for NASA. They have often spoke of the fact that this is a national goal, not a NASA-specific goal. I hope that their recommendations will bolster a more broad-based initiative that is well formed and will have the necessary political backing and common-sense capability for success.
" Today, the Bush administration is planning to use variants of the existing Atlas and Delta boosters to lift the Project Constellation spacecraft -- as it is now called -- and a possible unmanned derivative of the space shuttle's launch elements to lift larger payloads, such as lunar landers or other heavy lift elements.
The administration also is expected to convert facilities now in use for the shuttles to service the moon-Mars missions. New construction, which Kennedy needed, is likely to be minimized this time to keep costs low."
+ Read Article (UPI)
President Bush's goal of sending astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars should be part of a plan done in cooperation with other nations, representatives of foreign space programs said yesterday.
Kiyoshi Higuchi, executive director of the Japanese space agency JAXA, said his nation was interested in the American plan but was awaiting more details."
Editor's Note: Aren't we all?
+ Read Article (NY Times)
World calls for global space exploration (CNN/AP)
Moon-Mars plan must be global endeavor, experts say (Florida Today)
Foreign space representatives say Bush's space plan should include other countries (Newsday/AP)
The final Moon-Mars commission hearing is happening today & tomorrow. As always, we will post the archived video once it's released for anybody that missed anything.
+ View Live Stream
+ Moon-Mars Commission