DREAMS of a moon base will have to remain just that. The US is cancelling Constellation, the Bush-era plan to return humans to the moon by 2020. The programme is a victim of cuts announced by President Barack Obama in his 2011 budget request.
The cancellation will leave NASA without its own rocket capable of sending astronauts into space after the retirement of the space shuttle later this year. Instead, NASA is betting that astronauts will be able to pay for rides to and from the International Space Station on commercial launch vehicles.
The new plan must now be approved…
