spacetoday.net: Senate offers cautious support for new Bush space plan

Posted: Sun, Feb 1, 2004, 9:19 AM ET (1419 GMT)
US Capitol

Members of the US Senate expressed some support for, but remained skeptical of, the new Bush space initiative during a recent hearing. The hearing, held by the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday, gave Congress its first opportunity to question NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe about the plan, unveiled by the president on January 14. Committee chairman John McCain (R-AZ), who has criticized the president for naming a Lockheed Martin director to chair a committee to review the implementation of the plan, said he was concerned that the $12 billion allocated to the plan over the next five years falls "far, far short" of the total needed to carry out the plan. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), ranking Democrat on the committee's space subcommittee, also expressed concerns about the president's support for the plan, noting that the president did not mention it during his State of the Union address a week earlier. O'Keefe responded that the president was providing all the support NASA needed for the plan. O'Keefe also used the hearing to announce that the project to develop a Crew Expedition Vehicle (CEV), a key part of the new initiative, would be known as Project Constellation.