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Senate Issues Subpoena to NASA for SLS Materials

The space war over NASA continues: The Senate has issued a subpoena to NASA, demanding documents related to its plans for building the Congressionally-designed Space Launch System (SLS), what I like to call the-program-formerly-called-Constellation.

In related news, NASAspaceflight.com reports that those NASA documents state that the agency’s plans for building SLS will take 21 years (!), with the first flight not taking place until 2032.

No wonder NASA has stalled releasing these documents. Nor am I surprised. Based on the budget that Congress gave the agency, it is literally impossible for NASA to build this rocket any faster. And at that rate, no one should be surprised if it never gets built at all. Far better to cancel it now and save the taxpayers the money.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

5 comments

  • Joe2

    “Based on the budget that Congress gave the agency, it is literally impossible for NASA to build this rocket any faster.”

    Complete Bravo Sierra,

    The schedule that this travesty is based on comes from the Obama Administrations request for 2012 and the projections in the Obama 2012 Budget request for future years. Those numbers are well below the Congressional Authorization and the Appropriation for 2011 (the Administration is not spending the Appropriated amounts, when asked where the unspent money is Bolden replied something to the effect – ‘I will have to get back to you on that’.).

    Could you at least try to get a couple of facts straight?

  • James

    bob, is it officially time for everyone to jump on the ‘cut nasa and fund space x’ bandwagon? This is really outrageous.

  • James

    also, please take NASA to task on your next Batchelor appearance. John will most likely be mad as hell at this report too.

  • Joe2

    “bob, is it officially time for everyone to jump on the ‘cut nasa and fund space x’ bandwagon? This is really outrageous.”

    No the time has come for a criminal investigation of what is being done with the signed off on (even by Obama) NASA Budget.

  • Kelly Starks

    I’m amazed at how excited some folks are with SpaceX given they have the highest failure rate of any launchers produced in generations. (About a 50% don’t make it to the desired orbit (mostly crashing), 25% have dangerous flight control failures.) Also over half their paying launches, and a good chuink of their development budget is from NASA, so their not exactly burning up the commercial launch market eiather..

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