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Engineers are still working on the Constellation program during the review, and NASA plans to launch a test version of the human-carrying Ares I rocket by Oct. 31. Work isn't as far along on a larger rocket called Ares V, which would lift heavy equipment into orbit for a moon mission and an eventual trip to Mars. Former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin met with the panel privately before the public hearing. In a letter to members, Griffin said the Constellation program was being subjected to "broad but shallow criticism" when NASA needs continuity in its planning. "Do not allow the parochial voices of the small-minded, the self-interested, and the uninformed to prevail," wrote Griffin, who now teaches at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. "Choose the future." Arguing that Augustine's committee wouldn't even exist without budget concerns, Griffin said U.S. spaceflight shouldn't be done "on the cheap."
[Associated
Press;
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