For years the United States has been one of the leaders of space exploration with NASA being at he forefront of it providing most of the best equipment including developing vehicles for space travel. It isn’t known at he moment if it is truly a good or bad thing but NASA’s position is in danger as a White House committee is urging President Barack Obama to drop funding for the new Ares I rocket, which was slated to replace the current space shuttles and launch its first manned mission in the year 2015.
The committee instead wants the money spent on commercial firms to develop new equipment and transport astronauts to the international space station. They are hoping that the competition between companies will lower the costs involved while making greater strides in developing new technology. NASA isn’t so sure though and advises against doing so as it could end up costing a lot more as these companies haven’t proved how capable they are as they don’t have any vehicles proving at least it can be equal in quality and safety as the Ares I itself. If the Ares I is dropped there is already a lot of money wasted from what was spent working on it so far and if the private sector fails in delivering anything comparable to NASA it is going to cost even more going back and restarting the project.
