Neil A Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, on Wednesday sharply criticised President Obama's plan to cancel the space agency's program to send astronauts back to the moon.

"If the leadership we have acquired through our investment is allowed simply to fade away, other nations will surely step in where we have faltered," Armstrong said in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. "I do not believe that would be in our best interests."

Armstrong; Eugene A Cernan, the commander of Apollo 17; and James A Lovell Jr, the commander of Apollo 13, wrote a letter last month that called the proposed changes to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration "devastating." Cernan told senators that the three men had carefully chosen the words in the letter: "slide to mediocrity" and "third-rate stature."

Obama officials  including John P Holdren, the President's science adviser, and Charles F Bolden Jr, the NASA administrator  insist they are not abandoning human spaceflight. They said by relying on commercial firms and developing new technologies, NASA would end up with a more affordable and more sustainable way of getting people to space.

Armstrong and Cernan have yet to be convinced that Obama's plan will succeed. "I find a number of assertions, which, at best, demand careful analysis and, at worst, do not deserve any analysis," Armstrong said. Cernan spoke called Obama's proposal "a blueprint for a mission to nowhere."

Cernan said, "Now is the time for wiser heads in the Congress of the US to prevail. Now is the time to overrule this administration's pledge to mediocrity."Armstrong, for his part, criticised the secrecy that surrounded the Obama space plan.

That Armstrong spoke was almost as remarkable. In the 41 years since Apollo 11, Armstrong has hidden from his fame, rarely appearing in public. Cernan said that during a briefing from NASA officials, it was said that NASA might have to subsidise the commercial providers in order for them to succeed. The President's budget calls for investing $6 billion over five years for private companies to develop launching systems for astronauts.

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