Obama’s impact on the retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle

NASA currently is developing the spacecraft and launch systems that will replace the aging U.S. space shuttle fleet. Unfortunately NASA’s current timeline leaves a gap of several years between when the last shuttle is decommissioned and when the new Aries spacecraft is ready to carry humans into space. The problem is one of budget – specifically that NASA’s current budget cannot fund the accelerated research and development necessary in order to have Aries ready when the shuttle retires.

CNN’s Miles O’Brien recently looked into what’s known about President-elect Obama’s space policy and what impact the Obama space policy is likely to have on the approaching gap in U.S. manned spaceflight.