“Lets just keep on paying the Russians, if their deals are so great!”

They are a monopoly, and a sole source supplier. Neither is good.

And just so you know, I advocate for two or more commercial crew suppliers so we can avoid an American monopoly too. In fact the Shuttle was even worse, since it was a government subsidized monopoly, which is one of the reasons why you didn’t see any commercial crew services starting up previously.

“Would SpaceX still be in business without NASA? I dont think so!”

Yes they would. Go look at their manifest:

http://www.spacex.com/launch_manifest.php

They just wouldn’t be growing as quickly, but what they have proven is that there is a market for lower cost launches.

“What middle class person will be able to afford a ticket aboard an Atlas 5?”

This is a silly comparison. What middle class person can afford to fly on a Gulfstream G650?

Space travel for the foreseeable future is going to be limited to governments, corporations and the rich. That’s no different than how the private jet market works.

“Obviously we don’t have any flying saucers, but there are two “black” programs that are critical to NASA, the X-37 orbiter and the LOX/RP-1 winged flyback booster. Yes, they are unmanned and have a long way to go, but they are on the “critical path” to practical spaceflight, while MPCV/STS is an expensive childish fantasy leading to the same end as Apollo, i.e. cancellation.”

Yes and no. X-37 may be classified but is in no way obstructing HSF at NASA. Same for the winged fly back booster. NASA does not need DoD to fund either if needed, and NASA just gave money to DreamChaser. Nothing here to see. Sorry.

“Moreover DOD is likely to drop RLVs once it is under budget pressure. NASA should beg, borrow or steal its way back into this program and trade as much funding it can spare (after jettisoning the remains of Constellation) for the possibility of declassification.”

NASA right now is most likely trying to get out the mess our dear Congress put them in. They had aplan but Congress pushed SLS/MPCV down their throat. So there won’t be any RLV for years to come unless and until we clean up the mess.

HSF at NASA does not need an RLV. Not now. Not as a national commitment.

“If Bolden and the WH lived up to the agreement, which Obama signed into law, Congress would be more willing to increase funding for commercial space, particulary if SpaceX and others manage to avoid any major disasters.”

there is no data to suggest that….what do you base it on? RGO

Nelson Bridwell wrote:

“Bolden: “If I had a criticism of them, and the Congress, it would be that together they did not adequately fund the space program to be able to bring about a viable exploration program for beyond low Earth orbit and certainly did almost nothing to help us facilitate the success of commercial entities. That’s an area where President Obama has stepped forward, where no one did that since the beginning of NASA.”

NB – “Mr Bolden, head of NASA, does not appear to be aware of COTS, and the quarter billion dollars that was given to SpaceX to pay for the development and testing of the Falcon 9 and Dragon…” “

First, to imply that Bolden doesn’t know about COTS is silly as he has mentioned it repeatedly at committee meetings.

COTS is on track to start delivering next year and with the space shuttle’s last cargo to the ISS they are good for a year. So that is not a problem for NASA right now, the gap is. The President has called for higher levels of funding for commercial crew to close the gap but congress has lowered it in each case. It should be obvious to anyone that Administrator Bolden is refering to CCDEV because COTS was already funded and only commercial crew has been short changed.

So yes, I read what you wrote and, as I point out, taking a shot at Bolden that he doesn’t know about COTS is just a dumb point to try and make when it is wrong to begin with.

As for SLS. there was no compromise. there was the Senate putting in money for the Senate launch system and some vague language that all the SLS toadies thought would ensure it would be built…and they were stupid and wrong.”

Bolden (probably unintentionally) overstepped the truth when he said that the previous NASA administration did practically nothing for commercial space. If you were to ask him if he considers the Falcon 9 + Dragon to be practically nothing, I suspect that he would have decided to reword it to something more like “did significantly less than it could have, for commercial space”.

As for the 2011 NASA budget, it is considered by just about everyone to be a COMPROMISE:

http://www.space.com/11374-nasa-budget-2011-congress-compromise.html

Congress was willing to terminate the Ares I and shift the primary destination from the Moon to an asteroid, and permit/fund commercial crew in exchange for an aggressive fast-track development of a human-rated NASA HLV for BEO missions, as well as for forbidding shared space technology ventures/exchanges with China.

If Bolden and the WH lived up to the agreement, which Obama signed into law, Congress would be more willing to increase funding for commercial space, particulary if SpaceX and others manage to avoid any major disasters.

Instead, Congress is taking steps to cut the budget for OMB in half in response to it’s refusals to conform to China restrictions. I would not be surprise if they decide to adopt an earlier House proposal to replace billions in CCDev free grant money with loans that those businesses would need to repay. That would probably wipe out the LEO crew business case for the small guys, and perhaps even Boeing.

So, Vlad, did you actually read what I wrote?

As my HS physics teacher used to notate on homework, RTGDP! (Read the Gosh Darn Problem).

Obviously we don’t have any flying saucers, but there are two “black” programs that are critical to NASA, the X-37 orbiter and the LOX/RP-1 winged flyback booster. Yes, they are unmanned and have a long way to go, but they are on the “critical path” to practical spaceflight, while MPCV/STS is an expensive childish fantasy leading to the same end as Apollo, i.e. cancellation.

Moreover DOD is likely to drop RLVs once it is under budget pressure. NASA should beg, borrow or steal its way back into this program and trade as much funding it can spare (after jettisoning the remains of Constellation) for the possibility of declassification.

And again, we should care why…? This is a matter of national importance because…?

“That a technological backwater like Russia can claim parity in space technology with the United States should be hateful to real Americans.”

Russia or any other country can claim anything they want. That doesn’t mean it’s true or that anyone else believes them. We’re talking about a space program can’t even sustain their own global positioning system, nevertheless develop a new crew transport.

Again, get a grip.

“Why bother with Musk’s expendable rocket and limited Dragon vehicle.”

Because it will be three times cheaper than using the soyuz.

“We need to remove the barriers to invesetors.”

What barriers are stopping people from buying stock and investing in publically traded spaceflight companies like Boeing?

“Declassify black projects technology ,”

Which technology are you talking about?

suspend anti-trust laws for commerical space flight firms.”

Anti-trust laws are to protect consumers from a monopoly firm’s over pricing, why would you want to allow a space access company to become a monopoly? We have had that with NASA for fifty years, do we really want another one?