Nervous In Huntsville

from spacenews.com

“I’m a rocket engineer, a rocket scientist. I’m a big, big believer in the need for rocket technology, so I personally want to see Ares 1 going and the program going as it’s currently structured,” said retired Air Force Gen. Lester Lyles, a member of the White House-appointed Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee led by former Lockheed Martin chief Norm Augustine.

....“When I say successful, I mean they’re meeting most of their milestones, if not all of them, and seem to be technically doing the right thing,” said Lyles....

Regardless of whether Sen. Shelby is right or wrong, the prospect of a big political battle over the future of human space flight is a big reason why I want to see the private sector take over as much as possible.

I find the second article to be troubling. That Bolden can only "hope" to meet with the President "before the end of the year" says to me that the future of human space flight is a fairly low priority for the President.

Apparently Altair has been defunded. Given the recent Lunar Lander Challenge, maybe they hope to go commercial with that. Obviously huge amounts of development would be needed, but there doesn't seem to be any big hurry.

With all due respect: shut your lie-hole, Senator Shelby. This is pure political BS with a capital S. I've never spoken to either of them, but I'm quite sure that STS veterans Sally Ride and Leroy Chiao considered astronaut safety at every step of the process. Shame on you, putting local politics above the future of the human race! SHAME.

Jeebus on a skateboard, can't anyone with any average brain and a bit of balls nowdays just cancel this idiotic Ares boondoggle?

And I mean both A1/A5. They both suck.

This thing needs to be strangled in the cradle. Or it'll be killing us for the next 30 years. Slowly.

Bolden? Nah, he's too squishy and malleable...

Thank you very much.

The Ares 1 is a NASA budget hog that needs to be terminated-- immediately!

The Sidemount SD-HLV would be faster and cheaper to develop than the Ares 1 and would provide us with a vehicle that can launch-- a full sized-- Orion spacecraft plus cargo to LEO and to lunar orbit.

An approximate translation of the quoted statement of the Gentleman from Alabama into non-political English: "The Commission heard repeated assertions from my constituents that Ares-I is totally safe. Why have these unproven assertions not been accepted as gospel truth? How am I to maintain the level of pork to Huntsville if the President's commission relies of fact and analysis rather than the assertions of those who shout loudest?"

@ TitanLakes,

I think that planetary landings are off the near-term objectives list for now. We'll see short-life orbital labs, visiting the Moon's Lagrange points for > 14-day exo-magnetosphere science and asteroid flybys. However, I don't see lander development until after the heavy-lifter cargo rocket is in service. A lunar flyby, maybe even a multi-week lunar orbiter, may still occur before the retirement of the ISS. However, a lunar landing won't happen until the mid- to late-2020s unless a massive funding surge is given in the late twenty-teens.

IMHO, of course. The actual mileage my vary.