“Crew and cargo.”

IIRC, NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract is paid for out of the ISS part of the budget, which is Space Operations, not Exploration.

COTS may have come out of the Exploration budget (not much left anyways), and CCDev certainly is, but once the service is up and running the payment for services for getting crew to the ISS will likely come out of the ISS budget (Space Operations), and not the Exploration part.

Not before the end of next year, and if the House version of the authorization bill passes, not for years.

Andrew is correct.

No, he’s not.

$800M is left over for all of the other exploration accounts, not just commercial crew.

Crew and cargo.

All of this had to fit into the $812M left over for other exploration accounts.

Zero out everything except commercial crew and cargo, and you’ve got $200 million left…all of which can be arguably consigned to the SLS/MPCV accounts with a simple re-org. Suffocating my butt.

Also consider that the FY2011 figures for these accounts tended to be low compared to the outlook for later years.

Deal with the present, first.

Prez: FY 2011 PBR requested $500 million for commercial crew and cargo. The total appropriation after the final CR is $3.8 billion for exploration, with $800 million left over after the nominal SLS expenditure.

Vult: I agree with Andrew. The Exploration account includes Orion as well as SLS and some other programs, it’s not funds NASA can use for commercial programs. The question remains, is SLS a good investment of tax dollars? The real need in human spaceflight is reduced cost. In an era of trillion dollar deficits, when the public demands further tax cuts, Congress will not fund any meaningful BEO human spaceflight.

Space Launch System (SLS) is not only a space issue, but a good government issue. SLS is suffocating everything that is actually working in the exploration budget.

How so? FY 2011 PBR requested $500 million for commercial crew and cargo. The total appropriation after the final CR is $3.8 billion for exploration, with $800 million left over after the nominal SLS expenditure.”

Andrew is correct. $800M is left over for all of the other exploration accounts, not just commercial crew. From the FY 2011 budget request for exploration:

Exploration Technology and Demonstrations: $652.4M
Heavy Lift and Propulsion Technology: $559.0M
Exploration Precursor Robotic Missions: $125.0M
Human Research: $215.0M
Commercial Cargo: $312.0M
Commercial Crew: $500.0M

All of this had to fit into the $812M left over for other exploration accounts.

Also consider that the FY2011 figures for these accounts tended to be low compared to the outlook for later years. That’s because at first a big chunk of Exploration money was dedicated to “Constellation Transition”. So, for example, the outlook for the figures for these accounts for FY2012 (as viewed in the FY2011 budget request) was:

Exploration Technology and Demonstrations: $1,262.4M
Heavy Lift and Propulsion Technology: $594.0M
Exploration Precursor Robotic Missions: $506.0M
Human Research: $215.0M
Commercial Cargo: $0.0M
Commercial Crew: $1,400.0M

That’s when “Constellation Transition” was still taking some money. In later years, Exploration Technology and Demonstrations was over $2B/year, and Robotic Precursor Missions was almost $1B/year.

In addition, outside the Exploration account, general Space Technology has also taken a huge hit compared to the FY2011 budget outlook. Although not an exploration-specific account, a lot of the work under the Space Technology account would have helped exploration.

and

Basically, making sure said rockets don’t come down on population centres and that they come down (along with their human cargo) in one piece and with said cargo intact and still breathing.

No, they don’t. They only regulate enough to ensure that uninvolved third-parties are not harmed. They have no regulatory authority over either mission success or occupant safety — whether or not payloads are delivered or passengers come back breathing is not their concern.

And NASA has no regulatory authority whatsoever. They can specify how a vehicle that carries their personnel is designed and operated, but they cannot tell commercial operators what to do with other customers.

Space Launch System (SLS) is not only a space issue, but a good government issue. SLS is suffocating everything that is actually working in the exploration budget.

How so? FY 2011 PBR requested $500 million for commercial crew and cargo. The total appropriation after the final CR is $3.8 billion for exploration, with $800 million left over after the nominal SLS expenditure.

Regulation of crew and vehicle safety systems, flight operations and safety proceedures and maintenance proceedures (not dissimilar to what happens with airlines and their aircraft). Basically, making sure said rockets don’t come down on population centres and that they come down (along with their human cargo) in one piece and with said cargo intact and still breathing.

Sounds like a recipe for making things expensive, not making things safe.

This is outside the area of your competence. Probe the postal service and get it up and running before you try tinkering w/aerospace. You tea party goofs would do well to revisit how R&D projects are developed before poking pointed sticks and pitchforks into them.

Helping private companies eke out a profit in the tourist business is dull by comparison.

On the other hand, I’ve met people working in KSC’s commercial programs office and they’re quite enthusiastic about what they’re doing. But then their jobs actually point to the future, not trying to preserve an obsolete “standing army” as Jerry Pournelle recently put it.