Nelson's Compromise Emerges

Sen. Nelson Floats Alternate Use for NASA Commercial Crew Money, Space News
“As the Senate Commerce Committee begins work on a 2010 NASA authorization bill, science and space subcommittee chairman Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is questioning whether $6 billion the U.S. space agency is seeking for developing a commercial crew taxis might be better spent on a heavy-lift rocket that could take humans beyond low Earth orbit.”
Fla. Senator Says Obama ‘Restructuring’ NASA Plans, WESH
“A new word is creeping into the conversation: spacecraft — as in, Billow said, a replacement for the shuttle. Florida’s senior senator, after talking to the president, said U.S. astronauts could wind up launching in an American-built spacecraft after all. It would mean developing a giant rocket based on space shuttle engines, tanks and boosters to go with a new spacecraft, Billow said, perhaps the very one NASA was designing anyway.”
Nelson: Senate will order super-sized rocket, Florida Today
“U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson told a space forum co-hosted by FLORIDA TODAY that the Senate also is drafting legislation that would push commercial companies with contracts to fly cargo or crews to the International Space Station to hire people from the Space Coast work force, Nelson said” … “The president made a mistake,” said Nelson, who added that Obama is a strong supporter of the space program. “The president is going to have to prove that when he comes here on April 15 because. . . the perception is that he killed the space program.”