Draft version of Senate NASA budget released
A draft version of Senate’s NASA budget has been released. More commentary to come.
Update. From what I can tell by a quick scan through the actual proposed legislation [pdf], the Senate will give the administration most of the money it wants for commercial space, but also demand that it start work on a heavy-lift replacement of the shuttle immediately, including the full size version of the Orion capsule. However, the language requiring this latter action is very vague (“as soon as possible after the date of the enactment of this act”) and leaves the administration a great deal of wiggle room. From my experience, this means that Congress is trying to create the illusion that it has done something, but is basically leaving the decisions to the administration.
The draft language does forbid any contracts being issued for any new private commercial crew services until the 2012 year, which suggests that Congress wants NASA to focus on the Orion capsule and heavy lift option first. However, to me this merely means the Obama administration is being given the option to stall for a year and then come back again later with the same proposals it offered back in February of this year. That the draft legislation also gives NASA 120 days to put together its plan for its heavy-lift program only increases my doubts about Congress’s seriousness.
Overall, this legislation only confirms my worst fears. If passed as is, both the new private commercial space ventures as well as the government space program will suffer.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
If past it kicks the can down the road and doesn’t allow massive dismantling of NASA and US space infrastructure and skilled teams. It would naturally be better if they got refocused more no doing something productive – but sadly, coming out of Washington from this congress, this is a lot better then we really should have expected..
This legislation is focused on short-term jobs, not saving money and doing exciting things in space. Have you seen how much they are hacking out of the robotic precursor missions and next generation technology research?
The funny thing is that Senator Nelson has said that he didn’t want Congress designing a launcher, but the language in the bill seeks to force NASA to use the most expensive parts of Shuttle and Ares I. NASA will never be able to afford to do much if it is never allowed to stop being a launcher designer/operator – they don’t do it very well, and it sucks the majority of their budget out of real exploration initiatives.
>== the language in the bill seeks to force NASA to use the most expensive parts of Shuttle and Ares I.
> NASA will never be able to afford to do much if it is never allowed to stop being a launcher designer/operator ==
Well it could learn to not be a inept launch designer/operator, it used to be, but the big thing in the way of that is also in the way of them doing much. They are now a civil service organization driven by political winds. Hence the LAUGHABLY overpriced Constellation, in contrast to L/M and McDonnell Douglas offers for a $3B (in ’95 $’s) RLV capable of lifting a couple times a week, and in the MacDac case capable of Earth surface to lunar surface (with on orbit refueling) and return to Earth surface while fully reusable. Constellation would do far less, cost 20 times as much to develop, and really offer nothing of great value to industry or space development.
Commercial crew appeared unlikely to lower costs to NASA compared to shuttle, due to the planed associated overhead and (pork?) programs. So no Revolution there
You want a better NASA, get a better politics (especially civil service rules) to drive it.