NASA Says It's on the Right Manned Spaceflight Trajectory

At a hearing that's part of a broad review of U.S. plans for manned space missions, NASA officials insisted the Constellation program that's currently under way is the right path for the return of human explorers to space. Under the program, NASA plans to launch a test version of the human-carrying Ares I rocket by Oct. 31.

Engineers designing NASA's next moon rocket denied Wednesday that the human space flight program dubbed "Constellation" is too expensive, too risky and would unnecessarily delay man's return to space.The engineers defended their work to a committee appointed by President Barack Obama to review what's planned once the current shuttle program is retired.The head of the office that has spent four years designing the next U.S. rocket, called "Ares," told members of NASA's Human Space Flight Plans Committee that the current design was the safest, fastest way to get Americans back to space.

"We have done what we said we would do, and we are well on the way to our first test flight," said Steve Cook, head of the Ares project office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.Speaking during a public hearing, Cook dismissed suggestions by some that the space agency was on a flawed path with Ares."We are not drinking our own bath water," he said. "There have been several outside reviews since we began."