Anyone hoping to hear in his speech at the Kennedy Space Center that he was going to extend the shuttle programme or breathe life back into the Constellation project will have been disappointed.
The president stuck to the broad outline of the policy he announced in February's 2011 budget request.
The previous administration's ideas to go back to the Moon are history; the shuttle fleet will be retired at the end of this year; and the private sector will be asked to loft astronauts to a life-extended space station.
What we did get that was new was some specifics - some targets, a timeline.
There was a commitment to start work on a big new rocket no later than 2015, to send astronauts on missions beyond low-Earth orbit in a little over 10 years from now (including to asteroids), and to try to circle Mars by the mid-2030s.
In Obama's words, you could even hear echoes of JFK's famous Moon challenge:
"Early in the next decade, a set of crewed flights will test and prove the systems required for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. And by 2025, we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the Moon into deep space. So we'll start - we'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it."
The only thing that hinted at a concession was the promise to pick up technologies developed for Constellation's Orion crewship, to produce a "lifeboat" for the International Space Station - an emergency escape vehicle, if you like, which astronauts could use to flee a catastrophic accident on the platform.
But in truth it was never likely that Orion's development would be completely abandoned under the Obama plan.
If astronauts are ever to venture again beyond low-Earth orbit, they will need a vessel
capable of sustaining ultra-long-duration spaceflight, and Orion is currently the only such concept that has undergone serious development.
Much of what has been learnt these past few years will live on in whatever spaceship Nasa eventually chooses to develop:
"We will build on the good work already done on the Orion crew capsule. I've directed [Nasa Administrator] Charlie Bolden to immediately begin developing a rescue vehicle using this technology, so we are not forced to rely on foreign providers if it becomes necessary to quickly bring our people home from the International Space Station. And this Orion effort will be part of the technological foundation for advanced spacecraft to be used in future deep space missions."
So Obama's aim on Thursday was really to persuade doubters that his vision was coherent, that it contained clear, achievable objectives, and that it would maintain America's pride and leadership in human spaceflight.
In other words, Obama went to Kennedy to do a better sales job, to give the speech he probably should have given back in February.
Will his words have the desired effect?
The president is clearly winning over some people. He was accompanied on Air Force One by influential Florida Senator Bill Nelson and Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon. The former had previously expressed grave reservations about the new vision.
And the promise of a concerted effort to create new jobs along the Space Coast may also persuade some Floridians that the transition away from the shuttle and Constellation programmes might not be so painful after all.
Time will tell.
What Mr Obama will be hoping is that many Americans will finally accept his argument that it is time to stop looking back to Apollo and to try something genuinely new.
The sequence in his speech that caught my attention was this one:
"I understand that some believe that we should attempt a return to the surface of the Moon first, as previously planned. But I just have to say pretty bluntly here: We've been there before. Buzz has been there. There's a lot more of space to explore, and a lot more to learn when we do. So I believe it's more important to ramp up our capabilities to reach - and operate at - a series of increasingly demanding targets, while advancing our technological capabilities with each step forward. And that's what this strategy does. And that's how we will ensure that our leadership in space is even stronger in this new century than it was in the last."
Norm Augustine, the former Lockheed Martin chief executive, took to the podium after Mr Obama. Mr Augustine, you will remember, chaired the president's review of US human
spaceflight policy.
He said something pretty similar. He related the story how when his committee spoke to young people about Constellation and the idea of going back to the Moon, these kids dismissed it as uninspiring - as being the "policy of their grandfathers".
If you want to read the president's entire speech, you can do so here. If you want more detail on the Obama vision, this is available here [PDF] at the Office of Science and Technology Policy website.
And if you didn't see the criticism of the president's policy from Apollo legends Armstrong, Cernan and Lovell earlier this week, you can read that here.
And, of course, you can tell me what you think below.
Source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jonathanamos/2010/04/mr-obama-pitches-for-asteroids.shtml
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