Future of Human Spaceflight Decisions Announced by NASA

With the space shuttle fleet now in retirement, and the potential for the International Space Station to be abandoned in November, due to concerns with Russian launch vehicles, many are asking questions about the future of human space exploration. This week NASA officials met with the media to address those concerns.

On September 14th leaders from NASA, took part in two media events to talk about the future for human exploration in space as well as the launch systems which will take them there safely.

According to the agency, a new launch system is in development which is aimed at taking American astronauts farther into space than ever before. In the morning, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden joined members of Congress, including Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Bill Nelson, for a news conference in SDG-50 on the ground floor of the Senate Dirksen Building in Washington.

To engage as much of the public as possible in the announcement, the event was broadcast via a live webcast on the Senate Commerce Committee’s website http://commerce.senate.gov.

Later in the day, the space agency held a background media teleconference with William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate, Doug Cooke, deputy associate administrator for HEO, NASA Chief Financial Officer Beth Robinson and other senior managers.

To read more about the details released in NASA’s plans for future space exploration, visit their website at: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration.