City leaders continue to fight for Constellation

HOUSTON We first told you last month that the president's proposed budget leaves out NASA's mission to return man to the moon. Instead, more money is available for private companies to come up with space vehicles.

Worried about what that could mean for NASA, city leaders say they're working their political strings in Washington in hopes of putting pressure on the president to reconsider. If that doesn't work, they'll continue fighting to keep space jobs right here in Houston.

"The number of private sector companies that are already engaged in space work here means we ought to be where most of the mars project gets done," said Houston Mayor Annise Parker. "We're going to aggressively fight for that."

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recently said NASA's new direction could put man on Mars sometime in the 2030's.