At NASA Glenn center in Cleveland Thursday, there were sighs of relief followingg President Obama's confirmation that the Orion crew capsule will not be eliminated by NASA as once thought. Glenn is a leader of the elements of that project.
The President called the U.S. space program ''a national necessity'', refuting critics who charged he would gut the program.
Cleveland's NASA Glenn station is also key to some projects with changing futures, but following Mister Obama's speech - interim Glenn director Ray Lugo was quick to throw support behind the President's vision.
Lugo told Cleveland media members that he has spoken with leadership of the NASA Marshall center in Alabama, which has a lead role on several projects, and that there are already many ways the two facilities compliment the work each other is doing.
RAY LUGO:
"We believe that the locks methane work we've been doing, cryo fluid management, materials work that we do at Glenn, and then potentially nuclear thermal propulsion which would probably down the road.... all of those activities align well with our capabilities, and I've got an agreement at the Director level that we're going to have an appropriate role in those activities".
Lugo did not go into job changes, additions, or cuts, but had said last week that the future of the Cleveland base is strong, and that the mix of 34 hundred employees and contractors is not likely to change.
