The two companies most likely to benefit from President Obama’s controversial plan to outsource much of NASA’s manned space program are joining with industry experts who question whether the plan has been fully thought through.
“I think people who have been in the launcher business for many years find it hard to take the president’s plan seriously,” said industry analyst Loren Thomson in a recent New York Times article. “They think it sounds like an elaborate wake for the human spaceflight program more than a plan for moving forward.”
Boeing and Lockheed Martin have both indicated they are reluctant to invest large amounts of money to take on roles and responsibilities previously handled by NASA.
President Obama is calling for the cancellation of NASA’s current Constellation program and replacing it with rockets and crew capsules developed by commercial companies.
