Here’s an article at Aviation Week with more detail on what the administration plans for a NASA program restructuring (though I’ve heard via some of my own beltway sources that the architecture actually isn’t that well defined yet, and won’t be immediately–Wednesday’s speech will be more broad-brush).

One bit that I found of interest (and one which some people, who fantasize that this has anything to do with concerns about Chinese competition, should note):

“You have the accident to thank for this,” said one source of the new presidential policy, which Bush signed last month after an interagency review of space policy triggered by the report of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). The review and Bush’s decision have been closely held, and those who described it spoke only on condition of anonymity.

However, if this is all correct, then I’m a little less concerned.

OSP dead? RIP, and good riddance.

If it takes them ten years to develop the CEV, that’s plenty of time to get private activities going in LEO, making it ultimately pointless, or perhaps useable as a space-only vehicle, if the design isn’t too insane. The main thing is that it will keep NASA busy with something new that won’t be competing with the private sector.

I’ve pretty much given up any hope of getting sensible policy out of the administration (or for that matter, any administration), at least with respect to NASA, but that’s all right. I’m more concerned that they do no harm, and this policy shows some promise of not doing too much damage to our prospects for opening up space. It will only be hard on the taxpayers, but that’s nothing new, and in the context of the total federal budget hurricane, it’s spitting in the wind.