If appointing Hillary to SecState didn't bring about some serious Buyer's Remorse, maybe this will.

To make a long story short, it seems as if the sitting NASA Director is butting heads with the Obama transition team. Obama appointed the former PAO of NASA to run the transition team, which is an odd choice considering the eggheads he's otherwise been surrounding himself with.

The Shuttle is due to be retired in '10, and it looks as if the Transition Team wants to kill NASA's proposed replacement, a booster that not only would replace the shuttle but be capable of a moonshot, with modified Atlas and Delta boosters. The Atlas and Delta family entered service in 1957 and 1960, although both have evolved significantly since then.

Using the Atlas and Delta line is a signal to give up all attempts to return to the moon, for at least the foreseeable future. I had seen a Space.com article earlier this year(well before the economic meltdown got well and truly underway) that indicated a plan to slash the NASA budget. At the time I had hoped against hope that it would turn out to be a meaningless blurb, but now it doesn't appear so...