Wow, if they can do that then they can do ANYTHING! I’m gunna quit my job so Neil Armstrong can have it.. I’m sure he’ll have no problem.

Mark, thanks.

http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12946

The … studies indicate that overly optimistic and unrealistic cost estimates, project and funding instability, problems with development of instruments and other spacecraft technology, and issues with launch services are the most common drivers of cost growth, the report concludes. Problems that delay mission schedules also contribute to and magnify cost growth; if one mission is not meeting its schedule, it may also lead to planning delays for other missions. A relatively small number of missions appear to be responsible for most cost overruns, the report says.

You can download the entire report from their web site at the above link. You have to give them an e-mail address to download it; it runs 77 pages. I’ll be going through it tonight to see if it cites which missions are “responsible for most cost overruns.” (Constellation?!)

Err, I’m willing to wager Scott Hubbard might know at least a little about running a space project, being a former Director and all (yes, I know Ames is a Research center, not a Flight center, but they’ve still contributed quite a bit to missions throughout the years).

As for “piloting spacecraft down to the moon and safely returning to the Earth”, *none* of the CAIB member have done that. Because it’s not really relevant to their purpose. And, frankly, I’m not sure why that would be necessarily useful for determining policy, beyond offering a different perspective.

Not really. None of them have managed a big budgeted space project, spaceflights nor piloted spacecraft down to the surface of the moon and returned safely to Earth. But their credendials make them impressive for accident investigation boards, panel discussions and, in the case of Logsdon, good at interviewing Apollo era management on why they were successful.

Except those demanding a continuance of pork-pie in their Center Districts!

“Let’s get back to exploring deep space!”

You need the right rockets to do that, and you need to know what you’ll need at your destination. All of those things are in the proposed NASA budget, and will allow us to go beyond LEO faster than what Constellation was going to do.

The secret of the NASA budget that people don’t realize is that it is really only a 5-year horizon. During those 5 years, the basic transportation we need to get to LEO will be firmly established, and NASA (plus private enterprise) will be able to concentrate their efforts on what to do outside of LEO (Moon, Lagrange, NEO, etc.).

Future budgets is where the destinations will start being defined, and that may not happen for a couple of years. Keep your powder dry until then, because no one is going to be defining a mission to the Moon in this budget (no one likes Constellation).