Comments on: Putting NASA on notice http://www.spacepolitics.com/2006/11/15/putting-nasa-on-notice/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=putting-nasa-on-notice Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway... Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:35:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 By: Paul Torrance http://www.spacepolitics.com/2006/11/15/putting-nasa-on-notice/#comment-9379 Sat, 25 Nov 2006 03:36:43 +0000 http://www.districtofbaseball.com/spacepolitics/?p=1151#comment-9379 NASA living to a fixed budget ??? Year after year after year ???

We choose not to do these things because they are easy, but because they are haard, very haard – JFK.

But there seems no alternative.

]]> By: Doug Messier http://www.spacepolitics.com/2006/11/15/putting-nasa-on-notice/#comment-9378 Wed, 15 Nov 2006 16:46:20 +0000 http://www.districtofbaseball.com/spacepolitics/?p=1151#comment-9378 I don’t know if FT is right about this. Won’t tolerate cost overruns? Doesn’t seem to mesh well with recent history. ISS is wwwaaaaayyyy behind schedule and overbudget. But, it kept surviving. Given the need to retire shuttle, it’s hard to believe that Congress would shut the program down. Especially given the number of jobs it generates in various districts and states.

That being said, it would probably behoove the new Democratic majority to hold some hearings about the viability of the VSE architecture. It was clear over a year ago that adapting shuttle hardware wouldn’t be that cheap. NASA has been grappling with problems in the SRB derived launcher since at least spring. It’s underpowered and had (still has?) serious problems with stability. And there are serious issues with the recurring cost of the moon missions.

The problem NASA might face is that the Democrats might be more inclined to restore programs the administration has cut in order to fund VSE. That would exacerbate problems if VSE costs rise over the next decade. With budget deficits still high, there’s not a whole lot of extra money to spend on NASA.

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