On the blog Space News, Bill Nye (the science guy, I believe) describes his confusion as to why smart people—like Neil Armstrong and John Glenn—might not be excited about the administration’s new space plan.

Rushing to build a new HLV: Where's it going, again?

First of all, Bill, don’t feel bad about disagreeing with Neil and John—because so does Buzz Aldrin. This is an issue where smart people can and do disagree.

You’ve got a pretty good case for the new plan. As I understand it, here’s the key points:

1. Constellation was struggling and not going anywhere soon.
2. The new plan puts money into research and private space companies—two sensible and promising areas to put your money.
3. Under the new plan, we’ll be going to an asteroid and beyond—which sound like a pretty exciting mission, if you think about it.

So, with all these promising and exciting elements in the Obama plan, why isn’t everyone as excited as you?!

As Bill understands it, opponents of the plan don’t want to give up on the shuttle. They don’t like not having a manned spacecraft. Bill points out that, whatever we do, we were going to have a period with no American manned spacecraft. So, it’s not a flaw of the new space plan.

Maybe some are mostly concerned about the shuttle. Not me. Here’s MY problems with the new plan.

1. It’s not specific. Where are we going and when? The plan talks about possibly sending people to an asteroid, but with no specifics (which asteroid? by when?), I don’t see us going anywhere.
2. Constellation isn’t fatally flawed. Mostly, it’s been underfunded. Insufficient funding will kill ANY space plan. As for the technical problems, the first Apollo spacecraft caught fire and killed the crew. On its unmanned test, the Saturn V shook so violently it would have killed any human occupants. Those problems were solved and we got to the moon. Engineers can solve Constellation’s problems, too.

I would heartily support the new plan IF the goals and deadlines were made specific and if there was a commitment—at the highest levels—to stick with it. I don’t see why we’re rushing to get a new HLV (hey, wasn’t the Ares V an HLV?), without a specific mission for it.

Let’s secure some multi-year funding, get down to brass tacks—with the old plan or the new one—and start going places!

Read more: http://www.zimbio.com/NASA/articles/XGFpkd4h5lT/Bill+Nye+Clarifying+problems+new+space+plan