Comments on: Hot about the NASA bill in Cleveland

By: Ferris Valyn

Ferris Valyn — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 06:07:03 +0000

Mr. Bilings

A few points

1. I think the real dis-information came mostly from ATK. There was some from other companies (including one of the big 2 – I point out that Boeing has gotten interested in Commercial Crew), but ATK was, IMHO, the big enemy

2. Griffin & co had 4-5 years to convince people (including people on Congressional staff) that Constellation was the way to go.

By: Tom Billings

Tom Billings — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 05:46:16 +0000

Dave, I experienced an even stranger reception from the staff of one of Oregon’s Democrat Representatives. When a story in the Oregonian appeared about Representative David Wu and his opposition to the Obama Plan that had almost every point wrong, I called his office, and was put in touch with one of his DC staffers. The man kept attributing the results of the Augustine Committee to a cabal of New Space members and others in New Space forcing bad information on the rest of the committee members. He thought Jeff Greason had swayed the entire committee, and somehow pulled the wool over the eyes of people whose aerospace experience totaled more than a Century.

In spite of my careful explanations and protests to his staffer, it was only 3 weeks till Wu came out with an Op-Ed in the Washington Post, once again stating facts that weren’t facts and opinions about how Constellation was so inspiring to school children whose inspiration was necessary to what his Innovation and Technology sub-committee was all about.

There is a full press disinformation campaign afoot that makes what was done to the Space Exploration Initiative in 1990 look small potatoes by comparison. I have trouble with the sheer scale. To spread themselves so far that they reach people like Wu with the drivel I heard from that staffer, the resources must extend far beyond the efforts Max Hunter told me of long after Meuller tried to recruit him for the campaign to shut down Space Services Inc. Of course, after Meuller got himself appointed head of SSI by the owner, he didn’t need much more help. I still don’t understand how *that* happened, either.

Are we seeing ULA-opposed groups inside Boeing, and LockMart funding and collaborating in this? I haven’t a clue. Can the managers at Kennedy, JSC, and Marshall put this together all on their own, having both Republicans and Democrats blind-sided with conspiracy theories? I know Shelby’s motives. I know Shelby’s Republican partisans want to stop the transformation to a more market-driven Space advance, just because it’s Obama’s plan. The reach into Democrats with no appreciable District interest like Wu, still seems out of scale to anything the turf warriors have done over the last 30 years, however.

Regards,

Tom Billings

By: Stephen C. Smith

Stephen C. Smith — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 23:22:48 +0000

Oink, said the pigs.

By: C.R. Keith

C.R. Keith — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 21:59:18 +0000

A buckeye is a useless nut.

By: Dave Huntsman

Dave Huntsman — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 21:32:24 +0000

There has been a deliberate disinformation campaign in Ohio that has unfortunately succeeded all too well. During the week leading up to the bill, the members of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, LaTourette, and Kucinich were told (falsely):
– that the bill would lead to the closure of Plumb Brook with its recently updated facilities; wrong.
– that it would devastate research and development. Wrong. Research and development, including at GRC ,was devastated under the Bush Administration; the Obama Administration’s budget wanted to greatly increase and revitalize research and development, including at GRC; at the insistence of Republican senators from Utah and Alabama that was greatly decreased, but overall it was a step forward.
– Kucinich was apparently told that creating commercial space industries was in fact a secret Republican plot to ‘outsource’ all of NASA so that it can be closed down. That’s dumb on the face of it, but contains at least one element of truth. NASA has been hampered by huge operational costs -including for running the space shuttle -and there will be no competition for routine space taxi service from next year onward. The Obama Administration decision to outsource such routine operations – and hopefully over time lower their costs – would not only create new competitive AMERICAN industries, but free up NASA to do what it should be doing for America and Earth: not the routine stuff, but instead focusing its efforts on going where no one has gone before.

From a (selfish) GRC perspective: The Obama budget was (by far) the best; the Senate bill second best; and the House bill in the end something that continued NASA’s death spiral down into increasing irrelevance to Ohio, America, and Earth. LaTourette’s and Dennis’ staffers get an F here.

Dave Huntsman
Bay Village, Ohio

The sad part is that LaTourette and Kucinich’s staffers didn’t do their job and fact-check what they were told, even though there are Ohioans who could have explained things factually to them.

By: red

red — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 19:54:07 +0000

It’s pretty clear that states like Ohio are going to get the short end of the stick if they don’t combined forces with other states and interests. The SDHLV Congressional and lobbying interests are too well-placed and organized.

Aeronautics, space technology, commercial space, planetary science, astrophysics, education, robotic HSF precursor, exploration technology, Earth observation, ISS, and heliophysics need to all join forces and back each other up if they don’t want to see a repeat of the raids of the Constellation years.

By: Spase Blagher

Spase Blagher — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:22:46 +0000

I WENT BACK TO OHIO
BUT MY CITY WAS GONE
THERE WAS NO TRAIN STATION
THERE WAS NO DOWNTOWN
SOUTH HOWARD HAD DISAPPEARED
ALL MY FAVORITE PLACES
MY CITY HAD BEEN PULLED DOWN
REDUCED TO PARKING SPACES
A, O, WAY TO GO OHIO

By: sftommy

sftommy — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:56:47 +0000

Republicans eat slop at the same trough as the Democrats and squeal just as loud if they can’t find a teat.

–from an ol’ Nebraska pig-farmer many years ago…