Former astronauts unhappy with Obama space plan

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Neil Armstrong and other former astronauts say President Obama’s vision of future human space travel will cost the United States its standing as the longtime leader in that endeavour.

Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, and Eugene Cernan, the last astronaut on the moon, are telling a Senate hearing Wednesday that Obama’s decision to alter the Bush administration blueprint for returning to the moon will undermine NASA’s manned space program.

Obama told NASA workers last month that he was committed to manned space exploration and foresaw astronauts orbiting Mars by the mid-2030s. But Cernan asserted that Obama was following a “pledge to mediocrity.”

-- Associated Press