“Im thinking Space elevator, as a much needed and cheaper way to access space.”

It’s going to cost the U.S. Taxpayer about $30B to get the SLS ready for it’s first 130mt flight – that’s four people going to space. A space elevator would likely cost $1-2 Trillion or so for the first passenger. Who is paying for that?

And if we only have accommodations for six people in space right now, where are all those thousands and millions of “private citizens” riding the space elevator going to go? Who is paying to build all those accommodations and “things to do” for everyone once they get up there?

Now you can stomp your feet and prognosticate about how space vacations should be cheaper than vacationing in Hawaii, but you’d look like an idiot – don’t be an idiot. Space is the harshest environment mankind has ever attempted to survive in, and that means it will be the most expensive. Sorry for bursting your bubble.

“Until, and I emphasize UNTIL, we start thinking outside of the rocket box, spaceflight will remain outside the reach of most private citizens, period.”

Dennis, don’t be an idiot. Until the laws of physics are changed spaceflight will never be low cost enough for “most private citizens”.

If you need proof, just look at the corporate jet market – “most private citizens” can’t afford to travel by corporate jet, but that hasn’t stopped a HUGE corporate jet market from being established. The same will be true for spaceflight.

We don’t need billions of people flying to space in order to establish a growing presence in space. Let’s work on those things that let us increase the number of people flying to space each year from single digits to ten’s per year by the end of this decade, and from ten’s of people per year to hundreds next decade.

Focus on todays problem (incrementally lowering the cost to access space) instead of things like which lunar crater Walmart should build it’s first off-world store in.

Yeah, those were the bad old days. Explosive growth. Russians on their heels. Morning in America. What we are doing today is a lot better. I’d much rather borrow 43 cents on the dollar from the Chinese to pay billionaire hobbyists to rediscover rockets we built 50 years ago and pay extravagant pensions to the indolent. We’ll see how that argument works for ya next year.

“Building an inferior rocket (even for the 1960′s) at exorbitant cost to the taxpayer, hyping it endlessly, then never flying it?”

What a perfect description of the Ares/SLS rockets:

“exorbitant cost to the taxpayer” – Strike One
“hyping it endlessly” – Strike Two
“then never flying it” – Strike Three

Wow – a moment of clarity from Windy.

“… Building an inferior rocket (even for the 1960′s) at exorbitant cost to the taxpayer, hyping it endlessly, then never flying it? ”

You mean overpromising and under performing, through creative use of smoke, mirrors and slight-of-hand. We call it Reaganomics.

An astronaut is not an insider. They are no more in the loop than any other NASA worker. As usual, windy shows his ignorance.

So who to throw to the wolves? Commercial? JWST? SLS? Orion?

The biggest problem is that commercial doesn’t have many passionate defenders in Congress, because it doesn’t direct pork back to their districts.

On the other hand, no commercial, no space station. Or at the least, we keep buying flights on Russian Soyuz vehicles.

The pro-SLS porkers keep peddling it as a “backup” for ISS access because they foresee the commercial program being smothered in its crib. We all know SLS is a joke as an ISS crew rotation vehicle, but that might be the direction we’re headed.

The commercial people need to get it in gear and fly ASAP. Once they’ve demonstrated their viability, it will be harder for Congress to shut them down.

It should be noted that the current language in the Senate version of the FY12 budget attempts to force NASA to prioritize SLS at the expense of commercial crew. Read this language:

For necessary expenses, not otherwise provided for, in the conduct and support of exploration research and development activities, including research, development, operations, support, and services; maintenance and repair, facility planning and design; space flight, spacecraft control, and communications activities; program management, personnel and related costs, including uniforms or allowances therefor, as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 5901-5902; travel expenses; purchase and hire of passenger motor vehicles; and purchase, lease, charter, maintenance, and operation of mission and administrative aircraft, $3,775,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2013: Provided, That not less than $1,200,000,000 shall be for the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle, not less than $1,800,000,000 shall be for the heavy lift launch vehicle system which shall have a lift capacity not less than 130 tons and which shall have an upper stage and other core elements developed simultaneously, $500,000,000 shall be for commercial spaceflight activities, and $275,000,000 shall be for exploration research and development: Provided further, That $192,600,000 of the funds provided for commercial spaceflight activities shall only be available after the NASA Administrator certifies to the Committees on Appropriations, in writing, that NASA has published the required notifications of NASA contract actions implementing the acquisition strategy for the heavy lift launch vehicle system identified in section 302 of Public Law 111-267 and has begun to execute relevant contract actions in support of development of the heavy lift launch vehicle system: Provided further, That funds made available under this heading within this Act may be transferred to `Construction and Environmental Compliance and Restoration’ for construction activities related to the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle and the heavy lift launch vehicle system: Provided further, That funds so transferred shall be subject to the 5 percent but shall not be subject to the 10 percent transfer limitation described under the Administrative Provisions in this Act for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, shall be available until September 30, 2017, and shall be treated as a reprogramming under section 505 of this Act. (Emphasis added)

Of the $500 million for commercial crew, $192 million will be impounded until NASA meets certain milestones for SLS. Interestingly, the $192 million is about the difference between the House and Senate versions for FY12 commercial funding.

So it’s pretty clear that the Senators are attempting to smother commercial in the crib, just as I suggested.