Why?

Jim  Hillhouse of American Space
March 5, 2014 at 7:19 pm · Reply
Well, after talking to Capitol Hill staffers, they too are suffering the same head issues I am. At least I'm in good company.

Rather than talk about what Congress will or will not pay for, let's review what Congress has done since 2010 on space funding.

Congress has, on its own and despite both opposition from the Administration and aggressive delaying tactics on the SLS and Orion programs from NASA, appropriated those amounts needed to keep both Orion and SLS on track. And just as it's done since 2010, Congress is going to do what it wants on HSF, which is fund Orion and SLS fully.

What Congress sees is not a justification for Commercial Crew. Far from it. Congressional staffers are well aware of the true progress of that program and no, none of those players are getting us to ISS anytime soon. That's largely NASA's fault since Congress has informed it that the CCP program needed to down-selected years ago to better focus limited resources for faster progress. But NASA's leadership didn't do that for political reasons. Loose Boeing and CCP looses luster and respectability. Loose Sierra Nevada and we working on three capsule programs. And if you want to make engineers working in GN&C or ELSS laugh, tell them that one of the CCP companies will be flying crews by 2016. Guffaws galore.

And those in Congress specializing in space are well aware that, had getting independent access to ISS for our nation really been Job #1 for NASA's leadership, then the Administration would have approved Boeing's proposal for the X-37B follow-on, the 5 crew X-37C. We are talking about a dependable spacecraft that can sit in orbit for over a year and NASA said no to making it a crewed vehicle. Why?

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/03/x-37b-expanded-capabilities-iss-missions/

What Congress does see is that if we had not gone through the nonsense of 2010, we would be much closer to our own capability to launch crews to ISS than we are today. Instead, Neil Armstrong was right–the Administration changed our nation's HSF course in secret, without consultation, and mucked things up.

When it comes to the Moon, Congress is funding $3.5B annually on the DDTE for Orion and SLS. Anything else will have to wait for a new Administration as there is zero trust right now in Congress of anything the White House or NASA HQ are selling about human spaceflight.

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The x37-b is a fine spacecraft.  However it is MUCH smaller than space Shuttle.  It was deliberately designed to not have the extra weight, life support, and astronaut flying capabilites.  So to add humans would take 5-7 years and significantly modify the design and add a lot of weight meaning much less cargo.  Having said that, It could with enough NASA money be modified to carry about 3, maybe four humans into Low Earth Orbit (LEO).  Right now NASA is spending $500 Million per year to entice 3 companies to provide commercial crew service to ISS.  So contrast that with the NASA budget of $2.8 Billion in 2014 to build the new rocket (Space Launch System SLS and Orion crew capsule) and capsule to go to an asteroid.  That is nearly SIX times more to build a new NASA rocket and capsule that does not go to ISS!!  Does that balance make sense.  Is LEO commercial transportation to ISS an important objective of NASA compared to what they are spending to a maybe futurestunt to return an asteroid rock by humans?

 

Frank Thomas Buzzard

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