NASA’s 2010 budget is $18.7 billion. The acting Administrator Chris Scolese said the Obama administration had ordered an independent review of NASA’s plans to replace the space shuttle with a combination of manned and unmanned rockets. The new rockets are the central elements of what NASA calls the Constellation program.

“You can expect a new administration coming in wants to understand where we’re at, and is this the best way to go forward,” Scolese said. “That’s the purpose of the review, to understand that. Clearly if we’re on the wrong path we should change. If you’re asking me, ‘Do I think we’re on the wrong path,’ no, I don’t. We need to go off and demonstrate that. The review team needs to look at it and understand what we’re doing and offer suggestions on how we could do it better.”