WHAT’S NEXT? THE AUGUSTINE REPORT

The space shuttle Atlantis arrived home safely at 9:44 a.m. EST today.
Only 5 shuttle flights remain. What’s next?

Well, the Augustine Report on the future of manned space is in, and it isn’t pretty.

A White House committee is urging President Barack Obama to develop commercial taxi services to fly American astronauts to and from low Earth orbit, a move that would be a major shift in longstanding national space policy.

Under the plan, NASA still would build its Orion spacecraft to fly astronauts beyond Earth orbit -- on missions to orbit the moon and Mars or perhaps land on asteroids. The agency also would move rapidly to develop a human-rated heavy lift rocket to launch large components required for deeper-space missions. That rocket would provide a "fallback option" if U.S. aerospace companies fail to develop space taxi service to low-Earth orbit.

However, the shift in approach essentially would take NASA out of the business of launching its own astronauts -- a job the agency has done since Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space in 1961.

Commercialization of space is an obvious – and personally welcome – development, but the lack of a “Grand Plan” is disturbing:

Also among the big questions Obama will have to answer: Where should astronauts go next? The panel boiled it down to three options: Stick with current plans to go the moon, go straight to Mars instead, or fly interplanetary voyages to orbit the moon, Mars and perhaps land on an asteroid.

As is the clear lack of financial support:

NASA's budget needs to be ramped up by $3 billion between 2011 and 2014 to carry out any "meaningful" human spaceflight program.

Unfortunately, I don’t view the Obama administration as interested in space exploration or competent to develop a vision if it were interested.

It’s going to be a long three years for the next frontier.