After 50 years of NASA, we must not leave space, Sen Hutchison

"If President Obama has his way, the U.S. will retire the space shuttle program later this year, just as the International Space Station is finally complete and without a viable alternative to take its place. America has spent billions of dollars building and maintaining the space station. Now that it is complete, the Obama budget plan ensures that we will no longer have easy access to it."

NASA's plan B(olden), Nature

"America's space agency seems to be in a right old state at the moment. NASA was already on the back foot after President Obama announced the cancellation of its planned replacement for the Space Shuttle (which should normally be prefixed with the word 'aging' or 'antiquated'). Now it seems to be putting out mixed messages about using private companies to get American's into space instead."

NASA's varied missions worthy of full budget support, William S. Smith Jr, Washington Post

"The goals of NASA's space science program are unequivocal and far-reaching. These missions rewrite textbooks regularly. NASA deserves great credit for its sustained commitment to space science. While there are a handful of celestial bodies accessible to human visitation, our scientific horizons are limitless. NASA's budget request for fiscal 2011 should be strongly supported."

Building a technology showcase, interview with Wallace Wood, National Space & Technology Association, Houston Chronicle

"What I'm looking to do is to hold a world-class conference that includes the public. That goes beyond just mere businesses coming together. I want to bring the public into it. In my mind you have this industry that's designing the future. At the end of the day, we're all consumers. That industry needs the consumer to keep it viable and strong. I think that a public that is included and informed in the process makes for an accountable industry."