NASA moon mission axed on Columbia anniversary

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has killed NASA’s $100 billion plans to return astronauts to the moon.

The move came on the seventh anniversary of the space shuttle tragedy that triggered the return to the moon plan.

The White House said the program was too much like the 1960s Apollo mission and would require large budget increases just to get astronauts back on the moon by 2030.

In the budget proposal released Monday, the White House instead promised a new approach with no details. Obama also proposed $6 billion over five years to encourage companies to build private spaceships that NASA could rent.

President George W. Bush proposed the moon mission after the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster. NASA has already spent $9.1 billion on the program.

Breaking down the budget:

Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Spending: $19 billion

Percentage change from 2010: 1.5 percent increase

Mandatory Spending: None

Highlights: Obama’s budget would kill former President George W. Bush’s $100 billion mission to return to the moon, on the seventh anniversary of the space shuttle Columbia disaster. It was that loss of the shuttle that spurred Bush to propose the plan that was nicknamed “Apollo on steroids,” but last year an outside panel said the Bush program didn’t have enough money to do all it proposed. The budget said repeating the Apollo program 50 years later is “the least attractive approach to space exploration.” NASA has already spent $9.1 billion on the program.

Obama’s budget promises a “bold new course for human space flight,” but provides no details, such as where astronauts would go, in what ship or by when. It extends the life of the International Space Station beyond its 2016 retirement date and provides $6 billion over five years in additional spending, mostly to spur commercial companies to develop still-untested private rocketships. NASA would then buy rides in those ships like taxis.

The budget is much more about spending closer to Earth. It promises a speeding up of launching new Earth’s observing satellites, especially to monitor climate change. It includes money to fly a replacement for a carbon dioxide monitoring satellite that fell into the ocean last year instead of going into orbit.

Science spending at NASA would jump by about 12 percent and the agency is doubling what it spends on aeronautics, highlighting programs to reduce pollution from aircraft. Spending on day-to-day space operations, with the upcoming retirement of the space shuttle fleet, and education would go down 20 percent.