'We are a can-do agency'

摘要

Less than a year after being tapped by U.S. President Barack Obama to run NASA, Charles Bolden was tasked with dismantling a space shuttle replacement and lunar exploration program that had been approved by two separate Congresses in favor of a commercial approach to astronaut transport and technology development aimed at changing the economics of deep-space exploration.Obama's plan received a decidedly cool reception on Capitol Hill; lawmakers passed a bill, which was signed into law, that requires NASA to continue developing key elements of the previous program, Constellation, including a crew transport vehicle and a shutde-derived heavy-lift launcher.