House committee holds hearing to protect its Artemis pork
The space subcommittee of the House science committee yesterday held a hearing which appears to have been mostly designed to protect the Artemis pork that both parties have been funding for decades, designed not to get us into space but to funnel tax dollars into their districts.
The hearing had only two witnesses, one pro-SLS (Dan Dumbacher) and one only very slightly skeptical of it (Scott Pace). Both these men have been deep members of the Washington swamp for decades, and both made it clear that funding should continue for SLS, at a minimum through the third Artemis launch, presently scheduled for ’27, a launch date so uncertain no one should believe it.
NASA had been invited to send a witness, but it apparently declined to do so.
Pace, the supposedly skeptic of SLS, has actually been a big supporter for years. As executive secretary for Trump’s National Space Council during Trump’s first term, he consistently advocated big space and NASA-built rockets, showing continuous skepticism of commercial space. Even now, his suggestion that SLS be reconsidered after that third launch was very hesitant.
Essentially, this committee hearing was called by these congress critters to advocate the status quo, which is likely why NASA declined to send a witness. Why give them a chance to blast any potential or major change in Artemis and have the propaganda press savage NASA and the Trump administration with negative soundbites?
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The space subcommittee of the House science committee yesterday held a hearing which appears to have been mostly designed to protect the Artemis pork that both parties have been funding for decades, designed not to get us into space but to funnel tax dollars into their districts.
The hearing had only two witnesses, one pro-SLS (Dan Dumbacher) and one only very slightly skeptical of it (Scott Pace). Both these men have been deep members of the Washington swamp for decades, and both made it clear that funding should continue for SLS, at a minimum through the third Artemis launch, presently scheduled for ’27, a launch date so uncertain no one should believe it.
NASA had been invited to send a witness, but it apparently declined to do so.
Pace, the supposedly skeptic of SLS, has actually been a big supporter for years. As executive secretary for Trump’s National Space Council during Trump’s first term, he consistently advocated big space and NASA-built rockets, showing continuous skepticism of commercial space. Even now, his suggestion that SLS be reconsidered after that third launch was very hesitant.
Essentially, this committee hearing was called by these congress critters to advocate the status quo, which is likely why NASA declined to send a witness. Why give them a chance to blast any potential or major change in Artemis and have the propaganda press savage NASA and the Trump administration with negative soundbites?
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
Yes, the choice of witnesses is…telling.
I think Eric Berger may be right, however, that Babin and Haridopolis may have been caught off guard by Scott Pace’s shift to a moderately critical posture on keeping SLS.
Dumbacher, however, sang from the proper script.
No one at NASA, of course, is going to go anywhere near a hearing like this until the new NASA administrator and his team are firmly in place. Hard to blame them.
Okay, I am 100% in favor of new space and efficient use of resources. But how to proceed? Someone please enlighten me if I am incorrect here, but does this imply that the national human space program will shift to contractors? Or is the plan to keep the program and all spacecraft certification requirements which are necessary for astronaut occupancy? Or is there going to be a relaxation of these requirements? Because from what I have heard they are quite stringent and difficult to meet.
Any comment would be met with gratitude.
Cluebat: I have been arguing for decades that the worst thing American needs is a “space program.” The very words imply supervision and control by the government, a top-down Soviet-style communist approach that generally doesn’t work, and when it does, it does so inefficiently.
Sadly, we have been trying to copy the Soviets now for more than a half century, which explains SLS and the failures of the shuttle program.
What we must want is a free, very chaotic, and competitive aerospace industry, with many companies following their own path to profit and exploration. Within that mix the federal government should be a player, buying what it needs from that private sector to do the exploration and research it considers important for national prestige and security. It however should run as little as possible, with the best option being it runs nothing.
Almost all the legal government “spacecraft certification requirements” are generally a hindrance and a problem. They are not written with the quickly evolving technology in mind, and in fact act to discourage that innovation. Moreover, it must be emphasized again and again that there is no one in the federal government qualified to set those requirements. The people who know are in the private sector who are actually doing the work. They know what they need to provide viable and safe transportation. They have to do it right, for if they don’t they won’t get any customers.
I hope that answers your questions.
Thank you sir. It sounds like a great plan and I would be all for it. It also sounds like the beginning of a cat fight.
Cluebat: Heh. Aint’t that so? And ain’t we already in it? Fighting for freedom and liberty has never been easy. Our problem now is that Americans for too long ignored the fight.
They are in it now, however, good and proper.
Ok guys… I’m going to do some test posting, working with Shane the IT guy to try and iron out any problems with posting here..
To the point of this thread… It seems to me that contracting out manned space flight is a no brainer… But would / will this approach work with the robotic missions NASA shines with? James Webb was billions over budget, so would it have ever launched if farmed out to a private contractor? And where is the profit margin for an extended mission for a Mars Rover, never mind a voyager probe.
Given the tiny percentage of you guys tax dollars that NASA eats, it’s no biggie, but I have no doubt it could be better spent elsewhere ( IE. not on the SLS ), I’m interested in thoughts from boots on the ground.
( Please don’t jump down my throat… Because I’m pinko me, but replies are appreciated as I try and help iron out bugs in the reply system here..)
Lee S,
You’re correct that human spaceflight – from the US at least – will shortly be entirely provided by the private sector. I’m personally of the opinion that SLS and Orion will be cancelled sometime in the next 90 days. NASA will retain an astronaut corps in the near to medium term, but they will fly missions by, in essence, having NASA buy them tickets on commercially operated spacecraft.
Longer term, NASA may still have an astronaut corps for actual exploration missions, but they will be, more and more, outnumbered by more plebian types of people who just happen to live off-planet and wear spacesuits to work. By mid-century, for instance, I expect most of the US “sustainable human presence” on the Moon to be blue-collar “hardhats” sent there to build large items of industrial and habitation infrastructure – alongside what will probably be an even greater number of Optimus humanoid robots. Most of these non-robotic blue-collar astronauts will probably be of Mexican or Cuban ancestry given the demographics of the areas in which SpaceX has chosen to build its Starship production and operations infrastructure. Indeed some of these future space pioneers can probably already be observed on NASASpaceflight.com videos showing the ceaseless building going on at Starbase. The concrete never sets on Elon Musk’s earthly empire. That will continue to be true of whatever passes for concrete on the Moon and Mars.
NASA, and its long-time favorite contractor LockMart, have been very good at designing and building one-off deep space science probes for decades. What has been increasingly lacking of late is competent project management. NASA should retain its ace science, engineering and technician troops, but the Science Mission Directorate and the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate should have tiny HQ staffs and contract out the project management chores to the private sector as it has long done for the actual fabrication of parts. With the notable exception of Alan Stern, first-rate boffins tend to be second-rate – or worse – managers of projects and people. There are plenty of successful technical project managers in private industry who could be contracted to provide such services to NASA robotic exploration programs as they are ginned up. I hope NASA, under Jared Isaacman, moves decisively in such a direction.
Which is not to assume that deep space exploration will continue to be the exclusive demesne of NASA and academia. AstroForge’s Odin close-up asteroid survey spacecraft launched yesterday as a rideshare on the Intuitive Machines Athena lunar lander mission. It will go much more deeply into deep space than the Moon. And, should its survey target prove sufficiently promising, it will be followed by actual mining craft. Odin should also be expected to have siblings that will fly to other asteroidal targets of interest as quickly as AstroForge can afford to crank them out and launch them.
Nor are asteroids – both NEO and Main Belt – likely to be the limit of interest taken in deep space by private entities. Both long-term habitation and shorter-term-occupancy tourist resorts in deep space will begin to be significant things before this century is out and will be enormously important, economically, in the next century. Earth orbit, the Moon and Mars will get such things first, but I expect the fourth and fifth such areas of major interest to be the suitable environs of Jupiter and Saturn. Far enough away to avoid radiation belts, the views would be astounding.
To Cluebat.
I hold the polar opposite position of Mr. Zimmerman.
Where fiscal hawks want to shutter NASA Centers–China believes in spaceflight as a national asset.
Ayn Rand apologists HURT American spaceflight–and hostility towards SLS is the biggest problem with SLS.
The ABMA could have launched Earth’s first satellite–but we were interfered with.
There were plans for the Saturns to go to Mars–but that was put into the circular file because of the promise of a tiled vehicle that was going to revolutionize spaceflight.
Sounds familiar.
Instead of properly funding Marshall Space Flight Center as an American institution–people have constantly attacked MSFC–the American institution that created the Saturns.
MSFC used to be the ABMA –and Medaris and folks like Phil Bono talked about reusable troop rockets, Rhombus, etc.
We could have had Americans on Mars years ago had the right people been elected.