Moon plans

Bush's speech is at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0040114-3.html

There's a White House Fact Sheet at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0040114-1.html
This is largely the same material as in Bush's speech.

Here are reactions. Some compare it with the rumors, such as in the
Frank Sietzen Jr. and Keith L. Cowing article
http://interestalert.com/brand/sitei...e%20Br eaking

* Not much new money. The real number is $1 billion for the 5 years
starting in FY'05. Some of the rumors apparently thought that was a
1 year number.

* Rumors seem about right regarding the timeline (the new vehicle
starts unmanned testing in 2008, the shuttle is retired in 2010,
then there is a somewhat mysterious gap whereby the new vehicle
doesn't get flown crewed until 2014 - is this to avoid a spike in
funding levels or something?).

* Can we assume for sure that the new vehicle (CEV) would be a capsule
rather than have wings? I'm drawing that conclusion based on Bush's
statement "But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to carry
astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the first
spacecraft of its kind since the Apollo Command Module." The extra
mass of wings is bad enough going to/from Earth orbit, but the
penalty is magnified when going to the moon. But I suppose wings
would remain at least a possibility in principle.

* Cut of $11 billion from NASA's existing 5 year budget (FY'05+).
Where does this come from? Just ISS, OSP, etc, which are obvious
reallocations given the timeline and such? Is anything taken out of
science (there are some scientist reactions at
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...eforbus hplan
)? Some scientists complain about the lack of a future for Hubble
beyond 2010, when the shuttle is retired.

* What would a typical humans-to-the-moon mission look like? I'm
assuming something like several EELV Heavy launches, one with a
lunar lander (with ascent and descent stages), one with the CEV, one
with a propulsion module/fuel to get to a lunar-bound orbit, which
then dock together in Earth orbit. Granted, this might be in flux
for a while if the first phase is the CEV rather than the lunar
mission itself, but surely the design of the CEV would interact a
fair bit with the other parts of the lunar mission.