NASA Budget: Constellation Officially Canned, But The Deep-Space Future Is Bright

The Ares I-X The Constellation Program rockets will fly no more, but "aggressive" research into heavy-lift rockets should take us closer to manned missions in deep space. NASA

From Popular Science:

Rumors circulated last week, but now it’s official: NASA won’t be sending manned missions back to the moon any time soon. But in what may seem like a gutting of NASA moon- and Mars-based ambitions there is a silver lining: a $6 billion investment in helping private industry bring their space launch vehicles up to human-rated capacity and a smattering of modest robotic precursor missions to the moon, Mars, Martian moons or the Lagrange points that should set the stage for later manned missions far beyond low-earth orbit.

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