WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is nearing a decision
about the future of U.S. space exploration that could determine
the status of hundreds of well-paid and highly skilled jobs at
the Michoud facility in eastern New Orleans. A bipartisan
10-member commission appointed by President Barack Obama is
weeks away from completion of a study that already has raised
questions about whether the United States can afford plans to
replace the current space shuttle system with the new
Constellation Program aimed at returning U.S. astronauts to the
moon and ultimately bringing space travel to Mars. The new space
program would use Ares rockets — Ares 1 to carry people and a
larger Ares 5 to carry large equipment — with Michoud playing a
major role. One option, commission chairman Norman Augustine
said, would be to extend the shuttle program, which could
prolong some jobs at Michoud where the shuttle’s external fuel
tanks are now produced, and then skip Ares 1 and move directly
to a revised Ares 5 that would propel bot