Yesterday at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the future of U.S. human spaceflight, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, and Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17 and the last man on the moon, provided testimonies opposing President Obama's proposed space plan.

The former astronauts were passionate that the new plan, which they say was not subjected to a substantial review, presents no challenges, has little focus, and is a blueprint for a mission to "nowhere." Armstrong, Cernan, and Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13, also recently released a letter to the White House calling the president's plan "devastating" and a "slide to mediocrity".

The plan calls for the cancellation of the Constellation program, which would see the development of two new rockets, Ares I and V, and a crew capsule, and would return humans to the moon by 2020. Instead, it focuses on the using the commercial industry to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, and extending the life of the station to 2020. Until commercial rockets are ready, America will be buying rides to low earth orbit from the Russians. (During the hearing the NASA administrator, Charles Bolden, Jr., said the first commercial rocket would be a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which should be ready in 2015.)

Armstrong questioned this deadline. "The most experienced rocket engineers with whom I have spoken believe that it will require many years and substantial investment to reach the necessary level of safety and reliability," he said. Cernan predicted it would take the private sector 10 years to access low earth orbit safely, "leaving us hostage to foreign powers" and costing $10-12 billion.

Both former astronauts backed the Constellation program, emphasizing the depth of scrutiny it endured before being accepted by Congress both in 2004 and 2008. "It seems appropriate that the reason for discarding all this work should be explained to this committee," said Armstrong.

While Armstrong and Cernan opposed the new plan, other Apollo astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin, support it. Aldrin has said that our focus should be on human exploration to Mars, and has his own ideas for getting us there. Aldrin says there has been no direct communication between him and the other Apollo astronauts.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden, Jr. speaking in a lecture hall at MIT. Credit: Brittany Sauser

NASA's administrator Charles Bolden, Jr. says the agency plans to come up with revolutionary new space technologies so that humans can reach Mars under the current plan. NASA's scientists and engineers, along with academic collaborators, will have to invent new forms of space propulsion, in-flight refueling systems, space robotics and precision landing technologies, Bolden said yesterday at MIT.

NASA's future has been hotly debated since President Obama announced his new budget proposal for the agency in January 2010. Obama's proposal cancelled the Constellation program, a plan for developing new launch and transportation technology and returning humans to the moon by 2020. Instead, the budget focuses heavily on using the commercial sector to ferry astronaut to and from low earth orbit; and on pursing a more flexible path--sending humans and robotics to the moon, asteroids, the moons of Mars, with Mars itself as the ultimate destination.

Bolden is "committed" to the president's plan. "It was a hard choice to step back from the Constellation program and create a new path forward, but the president, with my full agreement, made a change that took a lot of courage," he said during a talk given to students and academics. Bolden believes the new budget will set NASA on a sustainable course to explore beyond earth.

But he called for a new era of invention at the agency. "We have not done anything in the past decade for basic research," he said. "The frustration for me is that when I go to Congress, all we talk about is Constellation and human spaceflight. We forget that the president's plan is to spend a lot of money on basic research."

Bolden believes NASA should collaborate with academic researchers on new projects and Obama's plan includes billions of dollars for such research and development in a variety of areas. Ultimately, Bolden wants humans to colonize Mars. But the first step should be additional robotic exploration, he said. "Robots can help us understand everything there is to know about the planet's harsh environment." He also mentioned a new propulsion technology, the VASIMR engine being built by former astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, for travel to Mars. "If it works, it goes fast, cutting the trip time down." (Currently, the Red Planet is an 8-month journey away and we don't have a vehicle to even attempt to send humans because of the radiation exposure. NASA needs to build bigger spacecraft with more shielding or better engine technology like VASIMR to get humans there quickly--Diaz engine would at the very least cut the trip time to Mars in half.)

The NASA administrator said that he believes strongly in the commercial sector. He noted that the commercial space industry has worked on NASA-built spacecraft since their inception. Under the new plan the difference is that commercial space companies will own the spacecraft and the government will lease them for missions. When a spacecraft is not being rented by NASA, the company can use it for space tourism or whatever they like. Bolden also said that the government is putting $6 billion dollars into the development of commercial spacecraft, so "we will be responsible for tests to human rate the spacecraft [to ensure they are safe] and to make sure it meets what we want."

How the spacecraft will be operated--who sits in the flight control room and where it's located, and how astronauts are trained, for example--is still being worked out. Bolden said he hopes to "entice" commercial companies to use NASA facilities as much as possible.

Bolden was energetic and charismatic in his talk, but spoke strongly. "NASA is committed to a new era of exploration, the 21st century space enterprise," he said, adding that the new plan has lofty goals that will create "a transformative path"--new technologies, new markets, new high tech jobs, new scientific discoveries, and a new era of space exploration.

Last week, the White House Committee on Science and Technology held two hearings to discuss NASA's proposed fiscal year 2011 budget. More details on the proposed spending were also released earlier in the week.

Some congressional members are questioning NASA's new direction, which calls for the Constellation program and the development of the Ares I rocket to be canceled, and for the agency to rely instead on commercial rockets to ferry astronauts into orbit. These members argue that such drastic changes could threaten America's leadership, and the very existence of the U.S. human spaceflight program.

NASA administrator, Charles Bolden Jr., has said that Mars remains the ultimate goal of human space exploration, and that the new program is designed to make it possible to send astronauts there sooner. But even with an "infinite pot of money", he said, humans could not reach Mars within ten years.

The concerns discussed during the congressional meetings focused on the plans' lack of a clear objective, and the assumption that a commercial rocket is better than a government built system, according to Aviation Week.

Bart Gordon, the democrat representative from Tennessee and chairman of the House science panel, said he fears that the companies that take over U.S. crew transport operations will become "too important to fail," and could require government bailouts, according to the Aviation Week report.

Antonio Elias, executive vice president and general manager for Advanced Programs at Orbital Sciences, one of two private companies that currently has an agreement with NASA to develop a capsule to carry cargo to the space station, says there is misinformation about the commercial industry. "We have the technical capability because [private industry] has been building spaceflight systems for NASA since the agency's existence," he says.

Elias's company has been working on the launch-abort system for the Orion capsule, the crew capsule being developed under the Constellation program. But Elias adds that neither the government nor the commercial space sector can do their job by themselves. "The government has the crucial and key expertise for spaceflight, and the building of these systems is done by the commercial sector."

Some congressional members are frustrated with the administration for not making a plan sooner and for not consulting more outside experts. According to FloridaToday.com the committee's top Republican, Representative Ralph Hall of Texas, called the budget "ill-conceived" and said it provoked reactions of surprise, frustration, and anger among NASA supporters.