‘Rocket City’ lukewarm toward new missions

NASA officials have described the Constellation program as "Apollo on steroids" because many of its designs are similar to those used in the '60s. It involves two different rockets: Ares I, which would carry the astronauts into space aboard an Apollo-like capsule, and an unmanned heavy-lift cargo ship called Ares V.

Samantha McCall, a student at Alabama A&M University, is more interested in cheap gasoline than a Mars mission.

"I don't know anything about it, and I don't want to know anything about it unless they bring me back some gas," said McCall, 21.

Morton's 11-year-old grandson Josh wasn't too thrilled about a Mars mission either, possibly because the launch date is more than a decade in the future.

"If they really do it, I'll be interested," he said while playing a video game at a state-owned space museum near the Marshall center.

Cook said longtime NASA employees and retirees are excited about NASA's return to manned exploration of other worlds. For more than three decades, the agency has relied on robot probes, the space shuttle and the international space station.

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"They say, 'Hey, it's about time. I hear that all the time," he said.

But amateur astronomer Jeff Delmas said there's more buzz in Huntsville over a new shopping development than about the Ares rockets.

"People who are involved are very excited, but I'm sure I know people who know nothing about it," said Delmas, who works in the software industry. "It's not everywhere you look. It may get that way, but it's not now."

Ed Buckbee, an author and lecturer who has worked in the space industry for more than 40 years, believes next year's first flight of an unmanned Ares rocket will be the jump-start the Constellation program needs to get more of the public's attention.

"I don't think people are aware that we are so close to the launch of a new vehicle," he said. "When they see the shuttle's replacement on the pad ... that is going to make it real."

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