Plans ensure the U.S. continues to hold the high ground of the final frontier, the authors write. New journeys for NASA

The final space shuttle launch scheduled for Friday has brought renewed focus on the future of the U.S. human spaceflight program. Disagreement over how the United States can best maintain its leadership in space is understandable, given the wide range of interests at stake. But successfully moving forward on this agreed-upon path is not helped by misinformation — and all too much of that has found its way into this discussion.

One misimpression is that the U.S. human spaceflight program is stalled. The truth is quite the opposite. Soon after President Barack Obama took office, an independent commission concluded that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s then-existing plan for the post-Shuttle era was not viable under any feasible budget scenario.


In response, the administration and Congress agreed on a new plan that places NASA on a path both ambitious and sustainable. It calls for extending the life of the International Space Station to 2020 or beyond, significantly increasing the number of U.S. astronauts in space over the next decade and making fuller use of this $100 billion investment. It also calls for initiating a heavy-lift vehicle development effort to support exploration missions to a range of destinations beyond low-Earth orbit; reinvigorating a program of space technology research and development to increase our capabilities in space while reducing costs; harnessing America’s entrepreneurial prowess to advance a U.S. commercial crew transportation industry, and bolstering NASA’s Earth- and space-science programs and aeronautical research.

Another misimpression is that the U.S. human space program has no destination of timetable. In fact, the current plan lays out a logical set of incremental steps for human spaceflight beyond the Moon — starting with crewed flights using new technologies, followed by travel to an asteroid or other destination soon after and subsequent missions to Mars.

Instead of focusing on returning to the Moon on a timetable that’s no longer achievable, the current plan aims to develop the key capabilities to enable travel to multiple destinations— involving not only bigger and better rockets, but also new technologies essential to long space journeys, like in-space propulsion, in-orbit refueling and better radiation shielding.

To accomplish these goals, we’ve called on the growing commercial space flight industry to focus on getting astronauts up to low-Earth orbit — so NASA can focus on the technological innovation needed to advance deeper into space.

Some have suggested that this approach is risky. But commercial contractors have built every spacecraft that has ever taken an American into space, from the Mercury capsule to the Shuttle. By catalyzing a new partnership between NASA and an increasingly capable space industry — and it is a partnership with NASA oversight, not a simple hand-off — we anticipate achieving a greater U.S. crew-launch capability sooner and at lower taxpayer cost than under the previous plan.

The industry has logged an impressive number of successes in recent years, offering strong evidence they are more than up to the job. And of course NASA will retain its authority to ensure that those vehicles meet the highest safety standards of safety.

Our approach is also sensitive to the need to preserve and create jobs. Some job losses are inevitable, due to the 2004 decision to retire the aging Space Shuttle fleet. But the current plan promises to minimize those effects by leveraging NASA’s existing expertise and workforce to develop a new heavy-lift rocket, crew capsule and advanced space technologies; while also creating new jobs by supporting the growth of a robust commercial crew industry.

Some have claimed that current plans will leave the United States as a second-rate space-faring nation — allowing Russia and China to surpass us. Let’s be clear: The United States won the race to the Moon in 1969, and continues to lead today.

No nation has more satellites observing the Earth; more spacecraft peering into the depths of the cosmos; more robots exploring other planets; or more ambitious and achievable plans for human space flight for the decades ahead—all while overseeing day-to-day operations of the ISS—an almost unimaginably complex orbiting laboratory.

U.S. leadership in space is simply not in question, and current plans ensure that America continues to hold the high ground of the final frontier.

John P. Holdren is assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. Marine Gen. (ret.) Charles F. Bolden Jr. is the administrator of NASA and a four-time former astronaut.