Nelson's Compromise Emerges

Sen. Nelson Floats Alternate Use for NASA Commercial Crew Money, Space News

"As the Senate Commerce Committee begins work on a 2010 NASA authorization bill, science and space subcommittee chairman Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is questioning whether $6 billion the U.S. space agency is seeking for developing a commercial crew taxis might be better spent on a heavy-lift rocket that could take humans beyond low Earth orbit."

Fla. Senator Says Obama 'Restructuring' NASA Plans, WESH

"A new word is creeping into the conversation: spacecraft -- as in, Billow said, a replacement for the shuttle. Florida's senior senator, after talking to the president, said U.S. astronauts could wind up launching in an American-built spacecraft after all. It would mean developing a giant rocket based on space shuttle engines, tanks and boosters to go with a new spacecraft, Billow said, perhaps the very one NASA was designing anyway."