NASA

Augustine Commission web site up

In you missed it at the end of last week, the web site of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee (better known as the Augustine Committee after its chairman, Norm Augustine) now has a web site. There’s a strong focus on interactivity here: there’s a list of questions submitted by the public, with answers; you can even vote up or down questions and suggestions submitted by others. (Hopefully they don’t get “rickrolled” like another online poll earlier this year about who should be administrator.) The committee also has an account on the popular microblogging service Twitter, where they provide updates in 140-character bites. (They even have an old-fashioned email address for submitting documents and other inquiries.)

There’s also a tentative schedule of committee hearings and other events, starting with the previously-announced June 17th public meeting in Washington. Additional public hearings are planned for July 28 (Huntsville), July 30 (Cape Canaveral), and August 5 (Washington); there’s also a closed “fact finding meeting” July 29 in Houston (why no love for the public in Houston?)

7 comments to Augustine Commission web site up

  • kert

    Current state of public-voted important questions looks pretty sad:
    http://hsf.nasa.gov/qa.php

  • red

    Right now the committee hearings are scheduled for Washington, D.C., Huntsville, Houston, and Cape Canaveral. These aren’t exactly the locations I’d pick for non-biased feedback. Hopefully they’ll pick some NASA regions that aren’t heavily invested in the current ESAS approach, and some regions noted for commercial spaceflight activity. I might suggest the Boulder/Denver/Colorado Springs region, Las Cruces/White Sands region, NASA Ames/Silicon Valley region, Las Vegas, Oshkosh, WI region (during the event), and Mojave/JPL region as examples that might start to provide some balance.

  • Sharon Y Garrett

    How do I get a schedule of meetings in the Los Angeles, CA area?

  • Please take 9:18 of your time to remember what is at stake in your review. Sometimes we need to go back a step to leap forward.

    Please share with the members at your leisure.

    President Kennedy’s speech at Rice University.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTyYM-dUgCI

    Here at KSC we look forward to your visit at the end of the month.

    Best Regards

  • Walter C. Nelson

    I respectfully request an opportunity to speak to the Augustine Committee during the July 30, 2009, public hearing at Cocoa Beach.
    I am an 85 year-old aerospace engineer, a retiree from the Kennedy Space Center, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin (1948), and an ex-prisoner of war.
    For the past eight years I have been writing and lecturing to civic groups and student engineers about space travel and exploration. In pursuing these activities I have developed information that I believe will be beneficial to the findings of the Committee. I have produced a DVD movie called The Way to the Moon and Mars, copies of which have been delivered to NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and Senator Bill Nelson. Also I would like to present copies to each member of the Committee.

  • There are three articles on my blog site you ought to look at, before you make your recommendation to the President. They are dated 9-6-09, 7-22-09, and 4-21-09. That site is http://exrocketman.blogspot.com. I am a former aerospace engineer, now a teacher. I spent 20 years in aero/defense new product development work before becoming a teacher, including the space launch business. If I can help you, I will. Please contact me.

    Gary W. Johnson, PE, PhD
    McGregor, Texas

  • Jim Soboleski

    I have read the initial summary of the report and expected much more. I hope the actual report is more detailed and specific. My initial impression is that the panel should have been much more technically qualified, maybe comprised of Aerospace Engineers with experience in the space program. General comments like the commercial industry can do this etc. are vague and offer no cost estimates. Yes the commercial industry can launch satellites. We are talking about launching people back into space…with all the liabilities that go with it.
    The whole purpose with going with the Ares V is the great payload capability. Nothing else can match it. Commercially there is nothing that can come close. The panel paints the impression that they are much more compitent than the numerous NASA Engineers and scientists. Based upon what I have read in their report, I doubt it. Fund NASA as needed to complete the Ares program. The program is making good progress for the endeaver set forth. Follow the commissions report and well be trying to play catch up with the Chinease. Better yet put togeather a commission that has more credibility and actually presents a thorough detailed analysis instead of one that seems to have bias against the Ares program from the get go. I trust NASA…not sure about this commission…could have found more facts just searching the web. Thanks

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