Obama to outline revamped policy

President Barack Obama will outline a revamped space policy today aimed at speeding development of a new heavy-lift rocket, increasing the number of human spaceflight missions, creating 2,500 new jobs and ultimately voyaging to Mars.

Mr Obama is to explain his policy on a visit to Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, where many in the space community have been critical after Nasa announced plans in March to kill a programme designed to launch astronauts into orbit and return Americans to the moon.

White House officials said that Mr Obama wants Nasa to begin work on building a new heavy lift rocket sooner than envisioned under the cancelled Constellation programme, with a commitment to decide in 2015 on the specific rocket that will take astronauts deeper into space.

"This is a rocket that is going to happen two years earlier than would've happened under the past programme," a senior White House official said.

This is part of a space plan that would boost Nasa's budget by $6 billion over five years for research and technology development for manned missions to asteroids, Mars and other possible solar system destinations.

Mr Obama would restructure the Constellation programme and allow Nasa to develop the Orion crew capsule, previously planned for moon travel, to provide stand-by emergency escape capabilities for the International Space Station.

"This new strategy means more money for Nasa, more jobs for the country, more astronaut time in space, and more investments in innovation," said a senior White House official.