posted 01-01-2011 07:42 AM               

From the paper:

As budgetary problems with Constellation developed over time, it became a common contention that the VSE (Vision) in general and lunar return in particular was “unaffordable.” This meme was cemented into the report of the Augustine Committee, which claimed that no path exists to get back to the Moon under the existing budgetary environment. In fact, that committee was presented with at least three alternative architectures that would have resulted in an affordable path to lunar return. As the imminent retirement of the Space Shuttle will leave the nation without an American system to access space, most of the work of the committee focused on launch vehicles. The selections and choices made in that decision process will have significant impact on our future space capabilities and thus, should receive careful consideration from a variety of perspectives, not simply from the viewpoint of making and operating the next American launch vehicle.