Congress, Norm, and NASA

Nelson: Obama must "pony up" to save manned-space exploration, Orlando Sentinel

"U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Wednesday that President Barack Obama is the only person who can save NASA's human spaceflight program and that the White House must "pony up" more money if it wants to send astronauts beyond the international space station. The Florida Democrat issued his challenge during the second hearing this week on NASA's manned-space program, which faces major problems after the space shuttle's retirement in 2010 or 2011 and was the subject of a three-month analysis by a presidential space panel."

Lawmakers slam experts' report on US human space flight, AFP

"A group of US lawmakers on Tuesday slammed a report by aerospace experts tasked to review NASA's human space flight program that proposed ditching plans to return to the Moon. "When it was announced that you were going to be leading an independent review of the human space flight program, I thought you were going to take a hard, cold, sobering look at the Constellation program," Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords told Norman Augustine, head of the review panel that bears his name. The Arizona Congresswoman said she had expected the group to "tell us exactly what we need to do here in Congress with our budget in order to maximize the chances of success."

Congress in hot seat over human spaceflight, Christian Science Monitor

"Will the Obama administration and the 111th Congress go down in history as the politicians who turned out the lights on the US human-spaceflight program? That is the fundamental question several lawmakers are asking as they pore over options and observations that were presented by a panel charged with reviewing America's human-spaceflight effort."