Now the New York Times is realizing what American Thinker posted back in 08 as: 

"In the meantime what happens to NASA's cadre of scientists for five years? The answer is they move on because putting the Constellation Program on hold for five years is tantamount to killing it. (Would you want your dentist to perform a root canal on you after she returns from a five year sabbatical as a lifeguard in Tahiti?) Those scientists that can, retire. Many of those that cannot retire find jobs elsewhere - maybe teaching High School math for Obama, or working in China's space program. Then, at some indefinite "minimum" time down the road, the U.S. space program restarts and they come back. Or not.

In the meantime, how do our astronauts get to the International Space Station? Simple, they hitch rides on Russian space craft until the Chinese enter the space transport competition.

USA Today quoted Obama's perspective on the space program.

 "We're not going to have the engineers and the scientists to continue space exploration if we don't have kids who are able to read, write and compute."