A review panel chaired by U.S. aerospace businessman Norman Augustine has concluded the NASA’s $18 billion a year budget is at least $3 billion too small to allow it to conduct a meaningful manned space flight programme. Without this additional money NASA will be unable to develop the larger heavy lift rockets needed for a moon landing or even keep the International Space Station operational past 2016.
A key part of the findings (PDF) is for Commercial crew launch to low-Earth orbit. Travel to the International Space Station is in a sense can be done by commercial providers allowing NASA to focus on “human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, based on the continued development of the current or modified Orion spacecraft”. To back the later the panel recommends the development of a heavy-lift capability.