As Space News [subscription required] noted late today, there’s a slight tweak in the compromise stimulus package in the Senate. While the topline figure remains the same as the previous compromise version, $1.3 billion, the $200 million cut from the original bill has since been distributed evenly across science, aeronautics, human spaceflight, and NASA facility repairs; previously the entire $200 million was going to come out of science. A Senate Appropriations Committee press release has similar numbers. What’s not clear is whether this was a change after the compromise version was announced Friday night, or if the original figures were in error. (A reader noted as early as Saturday a CNN article with a similar structure of cuts, but the article was rather confusing: what does it mean to cut “$50 million for NASA”, followed by $50 million for aeronautics, exploration, and Cross Agency Support?)
Meanwhile the full stimulus package passed a “test vote” Monday evening on a 61-36 margin. The AP article reporting the vote mentions NASA funding but only makes matters more confusing: it claims that the “Senate proposed $450 million for NASA for exploration, for example, $50 million less than the House.” In fact, assuming what they mean by “exploration” is human spaceflight, the House version contains no money (and only $600 million in total for NASA, $400 million of which is allocated to Earth science.)
Even with the local JSC, KSC, and MSFC interests in play, it boggles the mind that the Senate wants to send more money down the Constellation drain with the program’s continually mounting problems.
Ares I now has stage recontact issues which, even with more scarce mass dedicated to the vehicle’s ullage and BD motors, are going to be very hard to overcome given the uncertainties inherent in any solid motor shutdown. See (add http://www):
.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/02/08/322197/stage-recontact-is-ares-biggest-performance-threat.html
And the Ares I thrust oscillation problem remains so bad that the Orion cockpit being redesigned (again) around it. Controls will have to be handheld to prevent astronauts from hitting the wrong button on a vibrating instrument panel. See (add http://www):
.flightglobal.com/blogs/hyperbola/2009/02/nasa-kicks-off-orion-cev-cockp.html
Some homework on the Senate’s part would be welcome before proposing to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on a Constellation program with little, if any, remaining technical, budget, or schedule viability. Thousands of jobs may hang in the balance, but they and the taxpayer are better served with a workable program than throwing dollars at a broken one — especially in a stimulus bill when Constellation spending wouldn’t contribute to the stimulus in a timely fashion anyway. Hopefully the House version prevails on this issue.
FWIW…