Obama: Space program is not a luxury

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — President Barack Obama declared today he was “100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future” as he outlined plans for federal spending to bring more private companies into space exploration following the soon-to-end space shuttle program.

“We want to leap into the future,” not continue on the same path as before, Obama said as he sought to reassure NASA workers that America’s space adventures would soar on despite the termination of shuttle flights.

Obama acknowledged criticism, even from some prominent astronauts, for his drastic changes to the space program’s direction. But, he said, “The bottom line is: Nobody is more committed to manned space flight, the human exploration of space, than I am. But we’ve got to do it in a smart way; we can’t keep doing the same old things as before.”

He said that by 2025 he expects U.S. space exploration to reach beyond the moon and further into the solar system’s reaches.

Within his lifetime, Obama said, America will “send astronauts to Mars and bring them back safely.”

Obama visited the launch pads where U.S. space voyages begin and said the space program is not a luxury but a necessity for the nation.

He said the Kennedy Space Center launched Americans into space and has inspired a nation for half a century. He said NASA represents what it means to be American — “reaching for new heights and reaching for what’s possible” — and is not close to its final days.

As Obama landed at the Kennedy Space Center’s shuttle landing facility — the first president to do that in 32 years — supporters were pitching his plan as needed change.

“It’s exploration, not transportation,” said Planetary Society executive director Louis Freedman, while waiting for the president’s motorcade to arrive.

Planetary Society officials and academics said the president’s speech — the first on space exploration away from Washington since John F. Kennedy’s Rice University call to go to the moon — puts Mars more in focus than ever before.

“The U.S. is going to new exciting destinations beyond the influence of Earth gravity and make discoveries that we can’t predict.” television personality and Planetary Society vice president Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” said at the space center. “I think the concern is change. People are just afraid of change.”

But with a canceled moon program, the Obama plan is a tough sell. So Obama is bringing deal sweeteners with him to Kennedy Space Center, pitching work that will save jobs, provide training for others and extend the life of the International Space Station.

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