Obama to privatize NASA launches, end moon mission

President Obama will end NASA's return mission to the moon and turn to private companies to launch astronauts into space when he unveils his budget request to Congress next week, an administration official said Thursday.

The shift would "put NASA on a more sustainable and ambitious path to the future," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But the changes angered some members of Congress, particularly from Texas, the location of the Johnson Space Center, and Florida, the location of the Kennedy Space Center.

"My biggest fear is that this amounts to a slow death of our nation's human spaceflight program," said Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla.

Obama's request, which will be announced Monday, would add $6 billion over five years to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's budget compared with projections last year. With the increase, NASA would receive $100 billion over the 2011 through 2015 fiscal years.

The new money would largely go to commercial companies that would provide transportation to and from the international space station.

The commercial rockets would displace the Ares I, the rocket that NASA has been developing for the past four years to replace the shuttles, which are scheduled to be retired this year. Companies expected to seek the new space-taxi business include United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin that launches rockets for the U.S. Air Force, and Space Exploration Technologies, a startup company led by Elon Musk, who founded PayPal.

At a news conference in Israel on Wednesday, Gen. Charles Bolden Jr., the NASA administrator, gave hints of the new direction. "What NASA will focus on is facilitating the success of ... I like to use the term 'entrepreneurial interests,' " he said.