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President Donald Trump’s proposed budget trims NASA by about 2%. The agency’s budget would still be around $20 billion.

It’s a lot of money, but not enough. So says long time rocket engineer Mike Rudolphi. The Manned Space Flight Consultant says the dollars just aren’t there.

And there are all sorts of questions right now about when NASA’s Space Launch System might be ready to fly.

It doesn’t appear that will be until “after” an American Commercial Rocket takes astronauts to space.

In the mind of the Manned Space Flight Consultant… Just having an American rocket doing the job is a “huge” thing.

“That’s a great accomplishment for this country,” says Rudolphi. “For this country to have a commercial entity to be able to do that and take on that challenge and make that work.”

You can watch our entire interview with Mike Rudolphi below.