Bolden Seeks To Set The Record Straight

Alternatively many consider Bolden a hero. CxP was on a road to no where. The Augustine Commission showed that without massive budget increases lunar missions were 20+ years out! Bolden has made it clear that Mars is the destination, with many other goals as well, the Flexible path. Bolden is providing NASA with the tools to make this happen in a reasonable time frame with realistic budgets. And he isn't doing this by gutting robotic, science and aeronautics.

Why do smart men make bad decisions?

I think this is great!
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I find great comfort in knowing that President Obama has seen fit to put his faith in us to develop a game-changing strategy in our four mission areas, and that he has given us a $6 billion plus up on our FY10 budget as a show of support and trust. I fully believe in the plan that this budget has allowed us to set out for NASA's road ahead, and unlike many of our detractors, I do believe it will very likely allow us to reach exploration destinations sooner and more efficiently than we would have been able to while we were struggling to develop the Constellation Program.
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Just be you disagree with the decisions being made it does not make it a bad decision for everyone.

Most all think the decision made 4 years ago to Cancel many grants and programs/projects and Steal budget from every line item in the NASA budget to fund constellation was a Wonderful decision. This includes thousands of jobs lost by NASA and contractors.

So in closing, what comes around goes around. Happy days ahead!

As we plan to restrict ourselves to suborbital flight, the Chinese have just announced plans for a new version of their Long March 5 rocket with plans to go to the Moon.

Relevant quote:"Bao Weimin, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a CPPCC national committee member, said: "A moon landing program is very necessary, because it could drive the country's scientific and technological development."

I'm glad he's sticking to the R&D guns. This is a rare opportunity. It's up to him to make Congress understand why R&D matters for HSF.

Big Whoop. Constellation was going to be flying by 2012 and on the moon by 2020. People can and will claim anything they want. China is not a threat to our dominant position in space (both manned and unmanned) at this time and they won't be if we push forward with new technologies, infrastructures and methods.

Bolden seems like an extremely nice person, and his accomplishments are something he can be proud of and should be admired by others. I think he would make a very good neighbor.

That said ... he seems to me to be a weak leader, one who is basically an Obama yes-man. I don't know if he's up to the task of leading NASA or not.

China will be dominant if they are on the moon and we are chasing paper planes.

"As we plan to restrict ourselves to suborbital flight"

Wow, this is huge. I must have missed this. When did NASA cancel ISS? I thought we were going to be permanently in LEO at least till 2020?

For that heavy lift vehicle, a pistonless pump with an F-1 chamber would be a quick and reliable engine. Marshall could get it going with the budget they have now.

Steve

From the Coats email:
Steve Robert and I talked to Charlie and he agreed to let us set up a “Plan B” team (my term, since Chairman Gordon asked Charlie about his “plan B” at the hearing) to look at what a potential compromise might look like. Charlie is meeting with Chairman Gordon in a couple days and asked for a one pager with talking points before his meeting. Please contact Gary Lyles, Ed Mango, and Mark Geyer to develop that one pager quickly, and set up a team (you can name it anything you want—I don’t recommend Constellation or Orion).

Given Charlie's response, it certainly appears NASA senior management is struggling to stay on the same page. Leadership is about getting your workforce aligned and pulling in the same direction. Mr. Bolden may be a fine man with high integrity and sincere in his efforts, but one wonders about his strength as a leader. I think its time for someone to lose their job. Either Bolden needs to show he's willing to take a hardline in making "his budget" successful, or whoever may be above Bolden needs to show NASA that an Administrator change will happen to put someone in there who can really lead this change.

"I have not asked anyone to develop an alternative to that budget and plan, and I don't want anybody to do so".

Well, yes. This sets the record straight alright. It is a message to NASA employees that they are forbidden from aiding Congress in putting forward alternatives.

I really hate to see stuff like this go out over Bolden's signature.

I doubt they're looking for a "Plan B" while they're still searching to define a Plan A. When questioned by congress, Mr. Bolden had no answers nor did he give any hint that there had been due diligence on the proposed budget. This is understandable since nobody can find anyone at NASA who had been consulted before putting forward "kill them all and let the free market sort it out" plan. Frankly, it's about time they involved our national infrastructure.

The notion that finding entirely new technologies, developing them, then fielding them will get us to Mars sooner boggles the mind. There's an inference that we can just slap together a million-pound plus RP booster, a methane upper stage complete with space propellant depots, and a plasma or nuclear earth departure stage in a couple of years is just sad. We can do some of them but there's no way they can be ready sooner than using existing shuttle or EELV derived boost technology. The advanced technologies for earth departure require the starting of a nuclear space power industry. Not something that's likely to speed things up. Don't get me wrong, these are all worthy investments and something we'll definitely need but not anything that's deployable in the near term.

What we're watching is a rookie management team flailing about like a tortoise on their back. It's just painful to watch. I hope someone comes along and turns them over - Congress? Mr. President? Anybody?

I happen to think the Management TEAM is doing a wonderful job at NASA. This is a well planned activity in human mental health analysis which will support the Human Mission to mars. It is not going to be easy this is for sure.

have a great weekend.

Newsflash: the fuel/oxidant turbo-pumps used on all current in-service Rocket engines ARE "Pistonless"!

Oh dear,
we're all so desperate to see something actually brought to fruition, that we're all grasping at Straws. I've that feeling once more, that, with "Boldo" and "Lorigarv" at the helm of NASA, the taste of straw is going to become nauseatingly familiar.

Jay Barbree's piece for MSNBC on "Plan B" wins the award for the most errors possible crammned into a two minute onair piece. From falsely claiming a Plan B was underway, to overstating the amount spent on Constellation to claims that Constellation was cancelled "when it was almost finished", one has to ask if anybody edits his copy. While I don't mean any disrespect to Barbree's 50 years of space coverage, it does little to enforce any sense of accuracy for his knowledge of what is or isn't actually going on at KSC and elsewhere. It is pitiful to watch this play out on TV.

There may be a lot more rational leadership here than meets the eye. The decision to redirect NASA came late in the budget cycle, but it's amazing that it came at all. Several other issues - the economy, Iraq, Afghanistan, health care, etc. - were ahead of it. The politically safe move would have been to do nothing and punt it to the VP.

Making the necessary decision to cancel Constellation late in the cycle meant they didn't have time to put together more than the central direction and outline of the new program. It was strong leadership to cancel Constellation anyway rather than waste another year's budget on it.

It also created an advantage. If there was a detailed plan, the old guard would turn all their guns on it. This way, Constellation's defenders are forced to defend the indefensible without having a clear target to shoot back at. All they can attack is the vagueness of the new plan. (Watching right-wingers attack private enterprise while defending a government monopoly does have a certain humor value.)

Once Constellation is acknowledged as dead, the details of the new plan can emerge over the coming weeks and months. Over half of NASA (the majority part that Constellation stole from) benefits clearly from the new plan. Inside HSF, ISS research benefits immediately. The rest will have to swing in line when they realize it's the new plan or nothing.

There's a new sheriff in town. Get used to it. If you try to shoot him in the back, you may get what back shooters get. Ad Astra!

Frank

Do you think MSNBC programming is special interest funded and false propaganda ?

The FCC maybe interested in hearing from you.

I happen to think is a mental health issue and possible drug interaction with emotion as to why the report (Jay Barbree's piece for MSNBC on "NASA Plan B") is what it is. I'm not sure HHS cares about this at the moment given Jay's status as a "news reporter"

have a good day.