Comments on: What other astronauts want

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:40:21 +0000

everyone is available for consultingâ€¦

But some people have the inside track with some people.

By: kayawanee

kayawanee — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:58:44 +0000

Anybody here have any idea why the Delta IV was left out as a possiblity for crew delivery to LEO in this article?

By: Robert Oler

Robert Oler — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:21:59 +0000

Rand…everyone is available for consulting…

well most everyone

Robert G. Oler

By: common sense

common sense — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:56:51 +0000

Astronauts want to go to space and preferrably to distant worlds. If NASA is unable to provide transportation astronauts will do whatever they can to find transportation. Today they only have two choices: NASA and commercial. Therefore you’ll essentially get two groups of astronauts and maybe a third group of undecided ones. In addition astronauts want to fly often. What is the prospect with Constellation’s Ares/Orion in terms of flight rate? What is that of commercial?

So who is right?

Considering the trend with Augustine’s panel, Lori Garver Deputy Admin., Georges Whitesides Chieff of Staff… Hmmm… I wonder…

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:03:37 +0000

I believe Charlie Walker retired from Boeing in 2006.

I’ll bet he’s still available for consulting.

By: Major Tom

Major Tom — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:51:02 +0000

“I believe Charlie Walker retired from Boeing in 2006.”

You’re right. Thanks for the correction. That brings the number of astronauts who authored the article and work for companies that expressed interest in CCDev to four.

Thanks again…

By: Al Fansome

Al Fansome — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:31:35 +0000

Major Tom,

I believe Charlie Walker retired from Boeing in 2006.

FWIW,

– Al

By: Al Fansome

Al Fansome — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:29:11 +0000

I think this was actually important.

It ends the debate that astronauts — per se — do not support transferring responsibility for NASA’s human spaceflight to LEO to private industry. Policy makers would take notice if all the astronauts were saying this.

I can imagine a defender of Ares 1 saying “Trust the astronauts, who put their lives on the line. They are saying “Don’t do this.” ” That argument has now been defused.

This also partially addresses the Scott (I am mind melded with Griffin) Pace argument that “Ares 1 is the public option.”

When you consider that both Sally Ride and Leroy Ciao will be signing their names to the Augustine report saying it is time to transfer responsibility for human transportation to LEO to private industry, this is a good sign that the Griffin/Pace’s of the world are out of touch with the reality of where the nation is.

FWIW,

– Al

By: MrEarl

MrEarl — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:24:26 +0000

I would like to see commercial companies take over the US access to LEO. There are about a hundred reasons why that would benefit US space flight, and all have been examined on this blog by people more knowledgeable than me. Before that can happen those companies have to PROVE they are up to the job.
One of the most anticipated companies, SpaceX, has had only one fully successful flight of their Falcon1booster and the booster that would actually be used to launch humans, Falcon9, has yet to fly. The same can be said of the Dragon capsule.
NASA should do what ever they can to help the process along like share information and funding a COTS D competition but I don’t think we can base our plans on commercial human space flight just yet.

By: Major Tom

Major Tom — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:23:12 +0000

Five of these astronauts work for companies that expressed interested in NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program:

Bowersox – SpaceX
Gibson – Sierra Nevada (formerly SpaceDev)
Lounge – Boeing
Voss – Sierra Nevada (formerly SpaceDev)
Walker – Boeing

The rest work for companies that have not expressed interest in CCDev (Rocketplane, Zero Gravity), are in academia (UVa), or are retired (ex-politician, ex-Raytheon, etc.).

That’s better than the other op-ed, where nearly all of the astronauts worked for Constellation contractors or ESMD grantees. But it’s still troubling that the newpapers publishing these articles don’t advise their readers about these obvious conflicts of interest.

FWIW…