New direction for NASA

Bravo, it's about time!
I've been saying for years that this whole "Orion" moon thing has been bogus bullshit. Old technology rehashing what was done 40 yrs ago.

WE NEED NEW ROCKETS! GOOD ROCKETS! WE NEED NEW ORBITAL TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN GET US BEYOND ORBIT!

NASA has done nothing new since 1969. Thank god somebody put the brakes on this boondoggle and has redirected things toward a more science oriented program with a futurist view.

Once again the OBAMA administration looks at things realistically and does the right thing.

NASA: Good night moon, hello new rocket technology
AP
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – Mon Feb 1, 5:50 pm ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is redirecting America's space program, killing NASA's $100 billion plans to return astronauts to the moon and using much of that money for new rocket technology research.

The moon mission, which had already cost $9.1 billion, was based on old technology and revisiting old places astronauts had already been, officials said. The previous NASA chief, in selling the old moon plan, had even called it "Apollo on steroids." The rockets were based on space shuttle boosters.

"Simply put, we're putting the science back into the rocket science at NASA," White House science adviser John Holdren said at a budget briefing Monday.

The $4 billion that NASA spends yearly on human space exploration will now be used for what NASA and White House officials called dramatic changes in rocketry, including in-orbit fueling. They said eventually those new technologies would be used to send astronauts to a nearby asteroid, a brief foray back to the moon, or the Martian moons.