Not Closing the Gap

Obama’s Budget: Winners and Losers, Washington Post
“NASA: While there’s plenty of money alloted to help fund the goal of getting Americans back on the moon by 2020, Obama’s budget creates a gap between the current Space Shuttle program, set to expire in April 2010, and the next-generation Constellation program, slated for takeoff in 2015. During the “Shuttle gap” the U.S. will depend on Russia for rides to the International Space Station. Members of the Space community are understandably concerned about the five-year gap. In the words of one NASA observer: “Why would you send the money to Russia to launch our astronauts when you could keep the money and the jobs here?”
Editor’s note: Obama’s budget does not “create” a gap – rather, it does not close the one that already existed – and has existed since 2004.