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An Open Letter to NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Homer Hickam
"It was for that reason, I guess, that I was so surprised at how you've treated a lot of the people who work for you, all of whom also love our country and spaceflight. Maybe you weren't aware that many of those people were pulling 80-hour weeks doing everything they could do move the Constellation moon program forward. The impersonal manner in which you informed them that their work was no longer needed was not good, Charlie. Nor was the fact you allowed the program that defined NASA's future to be closed down with nothing concrete to take its place. I mean, a good manager would never allow a thing like that to happen. That's why I think you were as surprised as everybody else when you got your orders from the White House. At least, I hope you were."
Space Pioneer Burt Rutan Blasts NASA Plan, WS Journal
"Commercial space pioneer Burt Rutan has sharply criticized Obama administration proposals to outsource key portions of NASA's manned space program to private firms. The White House wants NASA to use outside firms to develop and operate new rockets and spacecraft that would transport astronauts into orbit and beyond, functions that had previously been considered a core function of the agency. Mr. Rutan, a veteran aerospace designer and entrepreneur, in a letter addressed to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, says he is "fearful that the commercial guys will fail" to deliver on the promises to get beyond low earth orbit, and that the policy risks setting back the nation's space program."
A better way to go where no one has gone before, opinion by Scott Hubbard, SF Chronicle
"Some complain that the plan concedes the moon to the Chinese. This is nonsense. The United States landed on the moon six times more than 40 years ago. As Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, has pointed out, it is far more logical to partner with the Chinese on the exceedingly expensive trip to the moon. In the meantime, many of us have identified the "flexible path" as a way of moving human exploration ever more deeply into space beyond low-Earth orbit, while keeping Mars as the ultimate goal."
Losing sight of the Moon?, ABC
"Like other NASA astronauts and scientists working on the complex Constellation program, Andy Thomas was surprised when the White House chose to dump the entire project. "Many of us who'd been working in Constellation and watching Constellation had recognised that some elements were not going in the right direction," he said. "We were not surprised when they were cancelled, we were surprised when the entire program was cancelled and done so without a clear plan of what the going forward position was. The wording was rather vague."
"From my past comments on NASA's" lack of direction and success, "an observer might think that I would applaud the decision to turn this important responsibility over to commercial developers," the letter says. However, he adds, that's "wrong.
"That would be a very big mistake for America to make"
Well, that kind of sums up what some of us have been saying for 3 weeks. The pro new space, destroy NASA crowd has gone on and on about how great SpaceX and Virgin Galactic etc are. (Some also mention Bigelow quite a bit, but lets be real.) Musk is always dismissive and disdainful of NASA and makes promises he has no way to back up. Rutan (a truly great aerospace entrepeneur and genius who brings more than money to the table) who is the only commercial enterprise to actually put a man in space, even if it was only a 2 minute suborbital flight, now came out and BLASTED the plan. If your poster boy for commercial flight and space tourism says the plan is awful, what do you all fall back on now?