Utahns decry Obama's plans for NASA

SALT LAKE CITY — President Barack Obama's view of NASA's future is fuzzy and throws bad money after good, Utah government officials and aerospace company managers said Thursday.

Obama laid out the details of his plans for the space agency and his proposed federal budget, which must still be approved by Congress, during a much-anticipated speech at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Although the budget actually increases funding for NASA, it effectively shelves the agency's space shuttle replacement program, already four years under way and with $9 billion already spent. Obama announced in March his budget would propose cancellation of the Constellation and Ares rocket programs, but workers at aerospace company ATK in northern Utah hoped he might reverse course Thursday. Instead, the president's resolve will force the company to shed up to 2,500 jobs in Utah unless Congress rejects the proposal.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said in a statement that the president's announcement to revive the NASA crew capsule concept — the design and engineering of which has been bread and butter at ATK's Utah facilities — doesn't go far enough.

Calling the administration's plans shortsighted and costly to both national security and the state's economy, Bennett said canceling Constellation and Ares is a waste of "billions of taxpayer dollars to simply reinvent the wheel and develop another rocket after canceling the safe, cost-efficient and tested Ares rocket booster."

Human exploration of space was evolving nicely under the Constellation and Ares programs, said Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of Space Launch Systems, ATK Aerospace Systems.

"The Ares I included going back to the crew capsule concept but was a dramatic step forward based on the technological advances and the lessons and losses of the shuttle program," Precourt said. "This is the safest, most sophisticated, most affordable space program so far. We designed, engineered, built and flight-tested the Ares I booster in four years."

Obama wants to revive the Orion crew capsule portion of Constellation, but shelve the rest.

Former astronauts disagreed with one another over Obama's plan, with some lining up to praise it while others excoriated it.

In an open letter sent to the White House this week, three former astronauts — Jim Lovell, commander of the Apollo 13 mission; Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon; and Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan — said the Obama plan would be "devastating" for the U.S.