"Congress cannot and will not sit back and watch the reckless abandonment of sound principles, a proven track record, a steady path to success, and the destruction of our human space flight program," said Republican Richard Shelby.

The comments from Shelby, the top Republican on a committee that oversees NASA's budget, showed lawmakers -- worried about the impact of the proposed space program cuts on local jobs -- were ready to fight the spending blueprint.

"The president's proposed NASA budget begins the death march for the future of US human space flight. The cancelation of the Constellation program and the end of human space flight does represent change -- but it is certainly not the change I believe in," Shelby said in a play on Obama's 2008 campaign slogan.

Obama's newly unveiled budget for the 2011 fiscal year that begins October 1 calls for ending the costly Constellation next-generation rocket program.

The decision will mean that NASA will be constrained to low-earth orbits for years to come, and will transform the aspirations of the US space program following the planned retirement of the shuttle fleet in September.

Under the new plan, Obama will also propose boosting the development of commercial rockets and other vehicles that can ferry US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), an outside US government advisor said.

The Constellation program was launched in 2004 by then-president George W. Bush after the Columbia space shuttle mission ended in disaster with the death of all seven crew members in 2003.

NASA has faced growing pressure to cut its budget as the US government's debt soars and the United States buckles under the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The agency has also seen dwindling political support, with its White House and congressional paymasters reluctant to fund the type of expensive manned space exploration that saw the agency put 12 men on the moon.

NASA is estimated to have already spent a little over nine billion dollars on Constellation, including 3.5 billion on the component Ares 1 program and 3.7 billion on the Orion program.

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