Support for a manned asteroid mission increases

SPACE.com: The first manned spaceflight to a near-Earth asteroid could be as early as 2025, per President Obama’s April announcement. To discuss the possibilities, NASA held the Exploration of Near Earth Objects Objectives Workshop, 10–11 August, in Washington, DC. The workshop’s goals were “to increase the collective understanding of NEOs, communicate NASA's plans for a human mission to a NEO, and capture external input on proposed mission objectives.” This week, at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Space 2010, representatives from Lockheed Martin will discuss such a mission using the Orion spacecraft, which it has been building for NASA to replace the space shuttle.