The Constellation Program (abbreviated CxP) was a human spaceflight program within NASA, the space agency of the United States. The stated goals of the program were to gain significant experience in operating away from Earth's environment, develop technologies needed for opening the space frontier, and conducting fundamental science.
Constellation began in response to the goals laid out in the Vision for Space Exploration under NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. It had already begun development, under several proposals. After Sean O'Keefe's retirement, his replacement Michael D. Griffin ordered a complete review, termed the Exploration Systems Architecture Study, which reshaped how NASA would pursue the goals laid out in the Vision for Space Exploration. With the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 formalizing the findings of the Exploration Systems Architecture Study, work began on this revised Constellation Program to send astronauts first to the International Space Station, then to the Moon, and afterward to Mars and other destinations beyond.
Subsequent to the findings of the Augustine Committee that the Constellation Program could not be executed without very substantial increases in funding, on February 1, 2010, President Barack Obama announced a proposal to cancel the program, effective with the U.S. 2011 fiscal year budget, but later announced changes to the proposal in a major space policy speech at Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2010. Obama signed the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 on October 11 which brought the program to an end despite promises to fully fund space flight during his Presidential campaign in 2008, but Constellation contracts remain in place until Congress acts to overturn the previous mandate. The program has been replaced by the U.S. National Space Policy of the Barack Obama administration. NASA announced that it had selected the design of the Space Launch System in September 2011.
Read more about Constellation Program: Spacecraft, Legacies of Apollo and Space Shuttle, Ares Boosters, History, Alternatives, Missions
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... criticised the Obama administration for abandoning NASA's Constellation program stating "It is unfortunate that this administration is choosing to abandon our nation's only chance at remaining the ... It is ironic that Constellation, a program born out of the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, would be eliminated in lieu of rockets ... to cite any evidence that the untested Ares rockets, being developed under the Constellation program, would be any safer than existing rockets ...
... When preparing for the Constellation Program, a now-cancelled series of missions to the ISS, Moon, and Mars which was planned to commence in 2015, NASA planned ... that a compliance issue required the termination of Oceaneering's contract for the Constellation suit for the convenience of the government ... begin work on the design, development and production of a new spacesuit system for the Constellation Program ...
... administration's decision to cancel the Constellation Program ... and develop new technologies for NASA's new Constellation Program ... in other scientific research to support the Constellation Program ...
... The Orion Mars mission plan for NASA's Constellation program is a manned mission with the intent to land humans on Mars in the 2030s ... Originally the ultimate goal of NASA's Apollo Applications Program (AAP) in the 1960s, the Orion Mars Mission would utilize the hardware, primarily the Orion spacecraft (or a variation based on the Orion), and the ... Originally envisioned, along with the Apollo Lunar Base, the Voyager Mars Program, and the Manned Venus Flyby, the AAP "Man-on-Mars" program was canceled, along with ...
... Obama's administration proposed eliminating public funds for the Constellation program and shifting greater responsibility of servicing the ISS to private companies ... The authorization act officially canceled the Constellation program ... was being developed as part of the Constellation program, was chosen to fulfill this role ...
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