A Bush administration plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 in a budget for NASA was proposed to be cut by President Barack Obama. If the plan is aborted, it will provide opportunities to the companies to conduct space operations for missions closer to Earth.

It was specified by the budget plan which was issued by Obama today that other than being over budget, the lunar program dubbed Constellation, lacked in innovation due to a failure to invest in critical new technologies.

The budget proposed by Obama aims at 1.5 pct increase in fiscal year 2011 funds for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration along with backing the growth of rocket systems that finally might take U. S. astronauts back into deep space. Obama feels that in order to carry out these trips, new locations for future landings are needed to be found by the help of robotic ships and test out new technology.

John Logsdon, former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington sees the proposal by Obama to encourage development of new systems as a very positive thing. He explained that this approach can give them a better space program, but only if it is sustained over the next decade or so.

However, lawmakers have criticized the plan to abort the moon strategy as they feel that the changes can risk U. S. leadership in space.

Senator Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the subcommittee that determines NASA's budget described Obama's proposal as commencement of the death march for the future of U. S. human space flight.

The Alabama lawmaker specified that in the next few years, companies will not be able to transport astronauts safely.

Dan McLaughlin, a spokesman for Nelson informed about a Feb. 24 hearing (to find out the feasibility of continuing some of the Constellation rocket development), which will be held by Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, who also has his concerns about depending so heavily on the commercial sector.

Charles Bolden, the agency's administrator; specified in a preview of how NASA officials may try to persuade lawmakers to back their approach that the budget proposal will give rise to jobs.

When NASA officials were approached, they did not give exact destinations or a timeline for missions beyond a few hundred miles of our planet.

Meanwhile, $50 million were today awarded by NASA to companies with the aim of developing concepts for the astronaut taxi service.

Chicago-based Boeing Co.; United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado; Paragon Space Development Corp. of Tucson; Kent, Washington-based Blue Origin LLC and Louisville, Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corp are included in the companies which won the award.

Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems Inc., Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp. and the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Inc unit of Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp were the major contractors for Constellation's primary rockets, the Ares I and Ares V.

The budget proposed by Obama encourages the use of robotic spacecraft after years of extensive scientific discoveries in the solar system achieved with investments far smaller than what is required to sustain humans in space.

It should be noted that the operations by the robotic rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in January 2004 for a 90-day mission are still being carried out on the planet.

Moreover, the progress of satellites that observe global climate change, particularly devices that supervise changes in polar ice sheets, would also be supported by the Obama budget. A 12 pct funding would be acquired by the Science Mission Directorate, which includes climate-change monitoring in order to boost to $5 billion from $4.5 billion.