President Obama Tosses a Wild Card into the NASA Deck -- Review of Manned Space Exploration. (May 9, 2009)

On Thursday the White House announced that President Obama has called for an independent panel to review NASA’s human spaceflight program, and specifically the Bush Administration's plans for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.

The panel will be chaired by Norm Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed-Martin who received his BSE in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton.

As Bob Park points out, Mr Augustine: "has headed many national committees, including the 1990 report on NASA priorities that called
for putting space science above space stations, aerospace planes, manned missions to Mars, and all the other engineering spectaculars on which NASA has focused."

According to ScienceInsider "The review, due by August, will consider alternatives to the agency's current goals for space exploration and the rockets and spacecraft needed, says acting NASA Administrator Chris Scolese. 'But first I anticipate that they are going to ... assess the status of where we are at and the progress we are making.' He adds, 'clearly, if we are on the wrong path, we should change.'

    "Those decisions could ultimately have a big impact on the science division, which under the proposed 2010 budget shrinks by 1.8%, to $4.48 billion."

It appears that significantly rational thought is not only penetrating to the Executive Branch of US government, but also being listened to and acted upon.