The new Ares-Orion spacecraft is supposed to be literally 10x safer than the space shuttles it will replace. And a recent safety board report endorses the early smaller version of Ares (called the Ares 1) which is currently under threat of cancellation.
That report by the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel also says that private space vehicles [...]

The Augustine Commission is recommending cancellation of the Ares I rocket—which NASA spent hundreds of millions of dollars on as its future manned orbital launcher (for earth-orbital missions.)
This is supposed to save money. Instead, that group advised NASA to alter and use an existing commercial rocket—developed by the employers of commission members—which is not currently [...]

Now NASA is expected to re-organize. Why? Maybe to make up for the failures of the government to provide a steady budget that’s necessary to complete a multi-year project? Maybe because people somehow expected the agency to develop a new generation of space vehicles without unforeseeable s cost over-runs?
Yeah. That must be it…
Now, NASA is [...]

The Senate passed an $18.7 billion funding bill for NASA, including $3.8 billion for exploration. Beyond that, the Senate inserted language into the bill designed to protect the Constellation Program—NASA’s planned successor to the retiring space shuttle.
Will Constellation (the Ares rocket and Orion spacecraft) survive?
Well, first of all, the President has to sign the bill. [...]

The Ares rocket—NASA’s next generation launcher designed to take people back to the moon and beyond—has received an endorsement from the U.S. House of Representatives. They agreed to fund its continued development…at least for a year.
I’m still dubious about the survival of Ares. The president isn’t too excited about it, and the Senate is very [...]

Yes. You read that right.
The headlines portrays the Augustine commission’s position as a call for a “public-private partnership” for manned space travel. But what’s important here is what’s NOT being emphasized. The commission wants funding to be provided to commercial companies to develop their own manned spacecraft and for NASA to cancel its entire manned [...]

NASA’s Constellation program, to return to the moon and go on to Mars, is under attack. There’s a commission reviewing NASA’s manned flight plans. And the commission is being told by contractors who want the business, to dump the Constellation booster and give them the business.
That would be wrong on so many levels. First, those [...]

Former NASA administrator Michael Griffin praised President Obama’s choice for his successor, former astronaut Charles Bolden. Griffin had hoped to retain the job, but the new president refused to keep Griffin, a Bush appointee. (Griffin himself succeeded another Bush appointee, Sean O’Keefe who was, in my opinion, the worst administrator ever.)
Instead, Griffin is now an [...]

Historic pad 39B, used for Apollo launches, and more recently launches of the space shuttle is being prepared for a new role.
Changes are being made to the pad so it can be used with Ares 1-X, the initial version of NASA’s newest launch vehicle for manned spaceflight. The first Ares 1-X test flight is scheduled [...]

Business Week writes about the symbiotic relationship between Russia and the U.S. in space exploration. It re-iterates the biggest upcoming situation—that for five years or more, the U.S. will depend on Russia to get its astronauts into space. After the shuttle retires, only the Russian Soyuz will be available to ferry people to the International [...]