US astronauts at the international space station will on Wednesday honour the first crew to circumnavigate the Moon. Members of the Expedition 18 crew have broadcast a video message from space hailing the feats of the Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, who began their circumnavigation of the Moon on Dec 24, 1968, after a 238,000-mile trip. The voyage, during which photographs of the earth were taken, set the stage for the first moon landing by the Apollo 11, led by Neil Armstrong, who became the first man to walk on the moon on July 20 1969. But a cloud hangs over the Constellation programme, the successor to the Space Shuttle, which was designed to set up a permanent manned base on the Moon by 2020 and then launch missions to Mars. Tensions between Michael Griffin, the Nasa administrator, and President-Elect Barack Obama's transition team have boiled over into heated public exchanges amid reports of rising costs and mission delays. In March, Mr Obama said: "I grew up on Star Trek. I believe in the final frontier." But he expressed dismay about the way the space shuttle programme was being run and said funding would be cut until mission objectives were more clear. "Nasa has lost focus and is no longer associated with inspiration," he said. "I don't think our kids are watching the space shuttle launches. It used to be a remarkable thing. It doesn't even pass for news anymore." Mr Obama had earlier raised the possibility of delaying Constellation, based on President George W Bush's 2004 "Vision for Space Exploration", for five years as a way of boosting education funding. With Florida playing a key role in the US election, he later proposed $2 billion in extra funding for Nasa and endorsed a lunar mission by 2010. But questions from Obama transition officials about costs, have led some in Nasa to conclude that the incoming president will scrap Constellation and with it hopes of sending humans back to the Moon.Nasa future in doubt as space agency marks Moon mission anniversary
The 40th anniversary of Nasa’s first manned mission to the Moon is being overshadowed by doubts over the future of its space programme.
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
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