America's 'Go to Guy' for Space

摘要

Budget constraints will make it virtually impossible for NASA to conduct manned missions to the Moon or anywhere else beyond low Earth orbit in the years ahead. That was the sobering conclusion delivered to the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama Aug. 14 by former Lockheed Martin Chief Executive Norm Augustine, who chaired an expert panel tasked by the White House in May to generate options for the future of U.S. human spaceflight.rnA former secretary of the U.S. Army who is often compared to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and former Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett for his national leadership in technology, Augustine is one of a handful of aerospace industry veterans whose vision and insight are routinely sought by public leaders. In 2005 he chaired a panel that produced a National Academy of Sciences report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future," which recommends ways to strengthen research andrneducation in science and technology.