On Tuesday, members of a key House committee expressed their reluctance to change NASA's existing plans for human spaceflight following the space shuttles are retired from service, beyond giving more money to the agency.

Representative Bart Gordon, Democrat of Tennessee, who is chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology, said: "I think that good public policy argues for setting the bar pretty high against making significant changes in direction at this point. There would need to be a compelling reason to scrap what we've invested our time and money in over these past four years."

It should be noted that Mr. Gordon's remarks came during the first Congressional hearing on a new report, which provides options for the future of astronauts in space.

It has appeared that a new series of rockets is being developed by NASA in order to replace the space shuttles, which are likely to be withdrawn next year.

The Obama administration, which in May assembled a panel to review the program, has not proposed public support for the rockets, which are part of the agency's Constellation program.

An ex-chief executive of Lockheed Martin, Norman Augustine, who headed the 10-member review panel, met with a sometimes crotchety atmosphere in his appearance before the committee on Tuesday.

Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, who heads the committee's Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, expressed her anger as she had been hoping for a comprehensive evaluation of Constellation and recommendations about how to improve it. The panel, according to her, had instead provided a menu of potential replacements for the program.

She said: "We have a glancing attention to Constellation, even mentioning it in past tense."

However, as per Mr. Augustine, the panel had exactly done as was asked by it, which includes, providing a list of options, not a preferred recommendation. He further explained that the Constellation program was one of the five options offered. He said that the present program is perfectly fine.

Last week, a 12-page summary was released by the panel and Mr. Augustine expressed that the report shall be completed this month.

"Committee members agreed with Mr. Augustine on a central conclusion of the panel: NASA needs about $3 billion more a year - increasing the spending over the next decade on human spaceflight to $130 billion from $100 billion - or it will not be able to accomplish the goals of Constellation or any alternative program," said a source close to the matter.

The panel concluded that a smaller increase of $1.5 billion a year would also be insufficient.