"We must invest in fundamentally new innovations for space technology and new ways of doing business if we are to develop a space exploration and development program that is truly sustainable over the long term," NASA administrator Charles Bolden told reporters Tuesday.

On Monday, President Barack Obama proposed dropping the massively over-budget Constellation program launched by his predecessor, George W. Bush, to develop a rocket aimed at returning Americans to the moon by 2020.

The White House said it wanted to ground Constellation because it was too costly, used outdated technology and would not be ready to ferry humans to the moon before 2028.

In its place, "a bold and ambitious new space initiative that invests in American ingenuity to propel us on a new journey of innovation and discovery" was being launched, it said.

As part of his 2011 budget blueprint, the president called for spending six billion dollars over five years for NASA to develop commercial spacecraft that could carry astronauts into low Earth orbit.

That was a far smaller increase than the three billion a year a presidentially-appointed panel has said would be necessary for a viable human flight program.

The president has also asked NASA to partner with the private sector, using funds from an economic stimulus package to develop the primary services transporting astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASA awarded five companies with contracts totaling 50 million dollars in stimulus money on Monday for the move -- Boeing, Paragon Space Development Corp., Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada Corp and United Launch Alliance.

"We are not abandoning human space flight," Bolden said repeatedly.

Democratic and Republican senators as well as Bolden's predecessor Michael Griffin, have criticized dropping Constellation, saying it would spell an end to US leadership in space.

But "we essentially were trying to recreate the glories of the past with the technologies of the past" through Constellation, said John Holdren, director of Obama's Office of Science and Technology Policy.

"Put simply, the Constellation program threatened other important parts of NASA's endeavors and mission while failing to achieve the trajectory of a program that was not sustainable."

Bolden also acknowledged that "tough budget decisions in the past have led to decades of under-investment in space technology development."

One way to renew NASA and have it play a key role in innovation as well as manned space flight is to get the private sector fully on board, Bolden stressed.

He was joined at the National Press Club event by representatives of seven businesses that already work with NASA on developing launchers and other space systems, such as SpaceX.

Bolden, a former astronaut, said Obama's plan was aimed at having achievable goals.

He predicted it would take "more than a couple of weeks but less than a year" for decisions to take place on future manned missions, with destinations like the moon, Mars and asteroids.

Obama's NASA plan sees the agency receiving 19 billion dollars in 2011, around 300 million more than the 2010 budget, with small annual increases to follow.

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