The new program would jettison Ares 1. To appease congressional critics like Shelby, the Administration hopes to ensure that research and development work on the new rocket would proceed without significant job losses at NASA centers like Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama."

But a senior administration official, who is not authorized to speak on the record, cautioned not to read too much into the proposed reductions. The official said agencies were given "global" instructions to cut their budgets by 5 to 10 percent to help reduce the record $1.4 trillion deficit.

"When the president makes a decision on human spaceflight, he can ignore that," said the official.

Going into space won't be cheap, but it will take only a small proportion of world resources. NASA's budget has remained roughly constant in real terms since the timeof the Apollo landings, but it has decreased from .3 percent of U.S. GDP in 1970 to .12 percent now.-Even if we were to increase the international budget 20 times to make a serious effort to go into space, it would only be a small fraction of world GDP

There will be those who argue that it would be better to spend our money solving the problems of this planet, like climate change and pollution, rather than wasting it on a possibly fruitless search for a new planet. I am not denying the importance of fighting climate change and global warming, but we can do that and still spare a quarter of a percent of world GDP for space.-Isn't our future worth a quarter of percent?"

Going into space won't be cheap, but it will take only a small proportion of world resources. NASA's budget has remained roughly constant in real terms since the timeof the Apollo landings, but it has decreased from .3 percent of U.S. GDP in 1970 to .12 percent now.-Even if we were to increase the international budget 20 times to make a serious effort to go into space, it would only be a small fraction of world GDP

There will be those who argue that it would be better to spend our money solving the problems of this planet, like climate change and pollution, rather than wasting it on a possibly fruitless search for a new planet. I am not denying the importance of fighting climate change and global warming, but we can do that and still spare a quarter of a percent of world GDP for space.-Isn't our future worth a quarter of percent?"