Bush rode out the STS program way after any sensible retirement date. Then his team threw together the unfundable and questionable Constellation program. NASA was &quot;asked&quot; to do this and couldn&#x27;t for a variety of completely predictable reasons.<p>Obama stepped and called Constellation &quot;over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation.&quot; And he was right. He tasked NASA to build out the Orion&#x2F;SLS and continue to fund the Commercial Crew and Cargo program that funds companies like SpaceX. This was done in NASA Authorization Act of 2010, a measly 5 years ago, which is nothing in human spaceflight engineering timelines. Its kinda incredible the SLS and Orion are where they are at considering the very short timelines involved. The debut flight on the SLS is in 2018 and I believe Orion is either completed now or will long be completed by then.<p>On top of it, NASA keeps hemorrhaging money to the Russians for Soyuz lifts instead of funding these programs. Charles Bolden writes:<p>&quot;Since 2010, the President has received approximately $1 billion less than he requested for NASA’s Commercial Crew initiative. During this time we’ve sent $1 billion to Russia.&quot;<p>Congress needs to fund these programs if you want them to happen. NASA can&#x27;t work without a proper budget.