Education & Opinion

Education & Opinion: "It is sometimes said that if a decision has a nearly equal number of proponents and critics, it must have been a pretty good decision. Such is not the case with President Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s Constellation program. [The Constellation program is a human spaceflight program which involves the development of spacecraft and booster vehicles to replace the Space Shuttle, with the Ares I vehicle for sending astronauts to the International Space Station and other low earth orbit missions, and the Ares V vehicle to send astronauts to the Moon and possibly to Mars as well.] The proponents say that Constellation’s demise is a good thing, because it will allow NASA to focus more of its efforts and resources on science…something that should have been at the core of its direction all along. Critics of the decision say that the cancellation is another sign of United States abrogation of its role as technological and exploration leader of the world. Both sides of the argument in this case have valid points to make, but there is far more at stake in this decision than merely the focus of NASA’s direction for the future."