Space Politics
Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway…
Archive for July, 2005
July 29, 2005 at 4:59 pm · Filed under Other
NASA Administrator Mike Griffin will be in a hot seat normally reserved for politicians on Sunday morning: as a guest on NBC’s “Meet the Press” hosted by Tim Russert. The program will also include a “historic” interview with three members of the shuttle crew: Eileen Collins, James Kelly, and Charles Camarda. While Griffin’s appearance is billed as an exclusive to MTP, the shuttle mission and space policy will make appearances on other Sunday morning talk shows, including “Face the Nation” on CBS.
July 28, 2005 at 6:48 pm · Filed under White House
It depends on what end of Pennsylvania Avenue you’re on. At the White House, space came up during for the second time this week. McClellan put the best possible face on NASA’s decision to halt future shuttle flights until the ET foam problem is resolved:
Q Is the administration going to take any steps to take a hard look at what’s going on with the shuttle program at NASA right now? Does the President believe that the NASA administration has an effective control of the program, in light of what’s happened the last 24 hours?
MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, a couple things. One, the safety of the crew is the top priority. The President relies on the judgment of the experts, the engineers at NASA. Engineers at NASA look at all the issues, and they assess the risk. The President appreciates NASA’s commitment to safety and acting out of an abundance of caution. He is confident in the job that Administrator Griffin and the experts at NASA are doing.
In terms of the latest announcement, NASA has not made any decision or announced anything about the timing of the next mission. The experts at NASA continue to look at all the facts and all the data. And once they have had the opportunity to do so, then they will come to some conclusions and make decisions about how to proceed.
[Scroll down not quote halfway through the transcript for this exchange.] A bit later McClellan added, “Space exploration is a high priority for the United States, and we want to continue to lead the way.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), chair of the House Science Committee, is a little more skeptical about the shuttle program’s future. In an interview with an upstate New York radio station he expressed some apparent doubts about when, or even if, the next shuttle mission would take place:
Boehlert today told Binghamton radio station W-N-B-F: “The shuttle program is not dead — if they can find an answer to the questions about the foam.”
Boehlert said without that answer — in his words — “it will not return to flight.”
The article plays up the possibility that the shuttle may not return to flight, although it’s not clear whether Boehlert really believes that is a real possibility, or if he’s simply stating that the shuttle will not fly again until (rather than if) a fix is found.
July 28, 2005 at 6:34 pm · Filed under Congress
Aerospace Daily reports that Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), chair of the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee, plans to meet with his Senate counterpart, Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), chair of the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, as well as ranking member Bill Nelson (D-FL). The discussion will be in advance of any House-Senate conference on the NASA authorization bill, with a particular focus on setting a retirement date for the shuttle: Calvert and his colleagues had sought a 2010 retirement date (although the final version removed that language), while Hutchison and Nelson have sought to keep the shuttle flying beyond 2010, if needed, until a replacement vehicle is operating. One wonders how yesterday’s decision to postpone any future shuttle launches until the ET foam problem affects these discussions—particularly if the delay stretches beyond just a few months: will it prompt more calls for an early retirement of the fleet, or be ammunition for those who believe there’s no way the shuttle can be retired as early as 2010 and still get the ISS (mostly) assembled?
July 28, 2005 at 1:33 pm · Filed under Other
An editorial in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution criticizes the House of Representatives for approving NASA authorization legislation last week that includes language endorsing the Vision for Space Exploration. The AJC’s complaints cover the usual ground, primarily that we can’t “afford” the VSE because of the huge budget deficits, Social Security and Medicare shortfalls, and the like. Ho-hum.
At the end, though, the AJC endorses a proposal put forward by Rep. Barney Frank during the floor debate on the bill: “There ought to be a national debate, he [Frank] said in published comments, ‘about whether or not to commit these untold billions . . . at the expense of other important programs.’” Wait… isn’t what has transpired over the last 18 months been a national debate? There’s been a lot of back-and-forth since the VSE’s introduction about its merits, from hearing rooms on Capitol Hill to the editorial pages of papers like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. We’ve had the debate, and, at least for now, the supporters of the VSE have won in Congress. What more debate does Rep. Frank, or the AJC, want?
July 26, 2005 at 7:31 pm · Filed under Congress
The Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee had scheduled a hearing this week on “NASA Passenger Aircraft: Mission Required or Expensive Perk?” However, at last report the hearing, which had been planned for Thursday, has been rescheduled for September 7, after Congress returns from the August recess.
July 26, 2005 at 7:08 pm · Filed under White House
As White House officials indicated a couple weeks ago, just before the last launch attempt was scrubbed, President Bush did indeed take a moment Tuesday morning to watch the launch of the shuttle Discovery. (Although, I have to ask: can’t the President get a bigger TV than that? Maybe a nice plasma HDTV set? Or at least one with a bit bigger screen.) The President also did release a brief statement wishing the crew of Discovery well and adding that “this flight is an essential step toward our goal of continuing to lead the world in space science, human space flight, and space exploration.”
Press Secretary Scott McClellan read the statement at the beginning of Tuesday afternoon’s press briefing and then got into an exchange with one reporter who kept asking if Bush still “supports a Mars mission” and how that “Mars program” was going, which included this back-and-forth:
Q And how is the Mars program going?
MR. McCLELLAN: NASA can probably update you on the effort. Again, this is a long-term program, and you can sit there and smirk about it, but the President felt it was important — (laughter) — the President felt it was important to outline a clearly defined mission for NASA. And we’re all excited about today’s launch and we wish the –
Q Will he be speaking about it –
MR. McCLELLAN: Hang on — we wish the crew all the best.
Q Will he be speaking about it –
MR. McCLELLAN: NASA is working on implementing it, John. Thanks for starting out the briefing on such — (laughter.)
July 25, 2005 at 12:56 pm · Filed under NASA
I’ve written an article for today’s issue of The Space Review that goes into more detail on NASA’s implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration in general, and its increased emphasis on commercialization in particular. The article primarily expands on the key points I noted in earlier post on the topic, with some additional quotes from NASA’s Chris Shank and Brant Sponberg.
July 24, 2005 at 2:22 am · Filed under Uncategorized
A few additional notes about the House’s approval Friday of HR 3070:
- The House approved three amendments, the most significant of which was a “manager’s amendment” that added $1.26 billion to the authorization for exploration programs. The amendment also allows NASA to complete the ISS “in such a configuration as to support fewer than six persons”, but only after reporting to Congress on why a six-person configuration cannot be completed.
- Two other amendments approved Friday require NASA to report quarterly to Congress on outreach activities within its Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, as well as submit a plan explaining how NASA will “protect employees who raise concerns about a potentially catastrophic risk to health or safety.”
- One amendment on funding for historically black colleges was submitted and then withdrawn, while another that would involve building facilities on minority campuses that would later be turned over to industry (??) failed in a roll call vote.
- As for Rep. Costello’s proposed amendment that would ban offshoring of ISS jobs—a provision which one person described as “Buy American on steroids”—was reportedly offered and withdrawn, but does not even merit a mention in the House Science Committee’s press release about the bill’s passage.
The bill’s passage was widely praised in press releases ranging from House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and House Science Committee space subcommittee chair Ken Calvert to the House Science Committee’s Democratic Caucus, all claiming some of the credit. Success, after all, has many parents.
July 23, 2005 at 12:24 pm · Filed under NASA
Since Michael Griffin became NASA administrator a few months ago we have seen a gradual change in the agency’s position on the role of commercial entities in carrying out the VSE. Griffin initially said he was open to it, but noted in early May that he did not want to get into a position where the agency had to rely on commercial contracts to carry out the vision: “I cannot put public money at risk depending on a commercial provider to be in my critical path.” Last month, Griffin said he wanted to press ahead with commercial ISS resupply services—cargo initially, later extending to crews—to free up resources elsewhere.
Yesterday, though, NASA raised its commitment to commercialization even higher. Speaking at the Return to the Moon conference, NASA’s Chris Shank made it very clear: “We’ve run the budget and we can’t afford to do this with a traditional approach.” A non-traditional approach, he explained, will put a far greater emphasis on commercialization, including ISS crew and cargo and perhaps other opportunities, such as purchasing launch services for the CEV. Later in the day, NASA’s Brant Sponberg unveiled the agency’s new Innovative Programs effort, which includes a mix of service procurements, other transaction authority, and prize competitions.
Michael Mealling has been blogging the conference at Rocketforge; his posts on Friday’s sessions and Innovative Programs in particular offer plenty of details. I’ll have more to say on this in the next couple of days.
July 22, 2005 at 1:32 pm · Filed under Congress
The House passed HR 3070, the NASA authorization bill, around midday Friday. The bill passed by an overwhelming margin: 383-15. I haven’t had the chance to review the debate on the floor about the bill, but it appears at first glance that there were few, if any, significant amendments.
Next entries »
