NASA Plans

Later today, NASA is scheduled to announce its plans for a space transportation system that will be used to pursue the nation's human spaceflight goals over the next couple of decades. Currently, as set by President Obama, those goals are reaching an asteroid by 2025, and a mission to Mars in the early 2030s.

Given those goals, the development of a heavy lift launcher might be on the agenda. That is controversial, both outside and inside NASA. Some argue it's too early to commit to any specific heavy lift design, while others suggest using several launches of smaller rockets might be preferable for virtually any mission in any case.

Learning how much NASA sees itself depending on commercial launch services will also be interesting. There might not be a viable market beyond NASA for huge rockets, but if NASA makes it clear it intends to rely on launchers such as the SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy it could be a nice boost for commercial space.