In a news conference yesterday, NASA managers discussed how the agency will be adjusting the budget, schedule, and technical performance milestones for its Constellation Program to ensure the first crewed flight of the Ares I rocket and Orion crew capsule in March 2015. The Constellation Program is developing the spacecraft and systems, including the Ares I and Ares V rockets, the Orion crew exploration vehicle, and the Altair lunar lander, that will take astronauts to the International Space Station after the retirement of the space shuttle, and eventually return humans to the moon. NASA will retire the space shuttles in 2010 and had established a goal of achieving flight capability for the Constellation Program before 2015 to narrow the gap in America's human spaceflight capability. As such, NASA aligned Constellation contracts and internal milestones against a date much earlier than March 2015 to incentivize an earlier flight capability. As part of an annual budget process that evaluates the program's budget, schedule and technical performance milestones, NASA will be working with its contractors to discuss how program plans and internal milestones should be adjusted — a process that will take several months and require contract modifications and associated milestone realignments. Such adjustments are not unusual for a complex development program as work matures and schedules and resources are aligned.