Comments on: The AP on the Aldridge Commission report

By: Paul Dietz

Paul Dietz — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 00:33:52 +0000

A streaming video of a talk given by Dr. Osheroff on June 16 at Fermilab on the Columbia accident can be found here: http://vmsstreamer1.fnal.gov/VMS_Site_02/Lectures/Colloquium/Osheroff/index.htm His oral comments included some factual errors (it wasn't clear to me if they were accidental slips of the tongue or reflect actual misunderstanding.)

By: Dwayne A. Day

Dwayne A. Day — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 22:29:34 +0000

A colleague of mine attended a talk given by Dr. Osheroff at Oak RIdge National Laboratory on Friday, June 18. After the talk, someone asked Osheroff about his comment that the plan would cost a trillion dollars.

Osheroff replied that he had originally said “hundreds of billions of dollars,” but that the AP reporter, Ted Bridis, kept pushing the $1 trillion number and Osheroff finally relented.

Osheroff also stated that after the article appeared, he got a rather testy e-mail from Sean O’Keefe, admonishing him about the statement.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 16 Jun 2004 04:34:12 +0000

To bring up another element of your comment, Jeff, the report specifically identifies ISS resupply as something NASA should buy from the private sector. NASA does not do that now.
It is a huge, high-value market. And NASA even has a budget for it in FY2005: $140 million, ramping up to nearly $1B/yr in 2010.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 04:54:28 +0000

“some experts have said President Bush’s goals could ultimately cost $1 trillion”

It would be nice if a journalist mentions that the “experts” are other journalists.

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 23:50:56 +0000

Actually, an appropriate and refreshing response to the question would have been exactly that:

“I am a low-temperature physicist, not a budget analyst.”

I won’t hold my breath waiting for one of these guys to do that, though.

By: Dwayne A. Day

Dwayne A. Day — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 19:36:55 +0000

The AP was the source of the original “$1 trillion” cost estimate, although that was from a different AP reporter.

I will try to contact Osheroff and set him straight. But it is also possible that he was responding to a leading question by the reporter, such as “Do you think, as some people have estimated, that it will cost $1 trillion?” Osheroff is, after all, a low temperature physicist, not a budget analyst.