NASA's New Spending Plan?

Bolden defends decision to cancel Constellation program, SaceflightNow

"The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that NASA is "scrambling" to come up with a new plan to satisfy vocal critics in Congress, but Bolden vigorously defended the strategy outlined in the agency's budget proposal released Feb. 1. "I wish I could say it was a singular problem of funding [affecting Constellation]," Bolden said. "Funding was the principal driver in causing the Constellation program to be unsustainable. But the Constellation program had degraded to a lunar program without a lander. Those decisions, while they had to be made because of insufficient funding, put us in a situation where we almost could not recover."

NASA to Devise New Spending Plan to Placate Congress, Wall Street Journal

"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is scrambling to come up with a new budget proposal to placate congressional critics as senior members of the House Appropriations Committee say that White House's plan for the agency won't fly on Capitol Hill. The Obama administration had initially proposed to allocate $6 billion over five years for a program that eventually would outsource manned space missions to private companies. Members of the appropriations subcommittee, including Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, its ranking Republican, have told NASA in recent weeks that they won't support the White House's proposed budget."


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". . . a lunar program without a lander"? Since when?

"a lunar program without a lander"

I'm so disappointed in you Mr. Bolden!!! Since when did you resort to lying. The more I watch you, the more I read your speeches the more I believe you are the wrong person for the Job.

Oh great, yet another case of journalistic malpractice from the WSJ's Andy Pasztor. After Bolden explicitly stated several times at the hearing that NASA wasn't creating an alternative budget proposal or a Plan B, Pazstor somehow comes up with a title and opening paragraph stating exactly the opposite. Pretty much every article Pasztor has recently had on space is this blatantly slanted (or in this case, an outright lie).

". . . a lunar program without a lander"? Since when?

Yes NASA has a name and powerpoint slides. All Altair is at this point is a vague concept that may potentially be developed at some point in the future. It's not a design, it's not a vehicle. Any budget that was allocated to it has been consumed by the Ares-1 and future development was contingent on the cancellation of ISS in 2015

"But the Constellation program had degraded to a lunar program without a lander. Those decisions, while they had to be made because of insufficient funding, put us in a situation where we almost could not recover."

Degraded? It was funded adequately to begin with. That's the reason why Constellation should be canceled? No lander? You mean a lander project that hasn't been funded adequately. "Almost could not recover" - what? You giving up? Well, at least NASA in the 60's didn't roll over when things got hard.

Since the Altair was defunded about a year before the Augustine Commission hearings started.

Backwaters said: "Well, at least NASA in the 60's didn't roll over when things got hard."

NASA in the 1960's got all of the funding they needed for moon-related work, but (and a really big but) it happened only because the federal government literally took control of all of the related US industries.

The US, for a time, became a centrally-directed economy, something that couldn't be made to happen now, and the taxpayers would (rightly) certainly not stand still for it.

A centrally-directed economy, as opposed to a market economy, is what communism enforces on its population (and I mean communism, not socialism).

So, bottom line, the US government (LBJ, not Kennedy) beat the communists to the Moon, by being more successful communists for a few years.

As ugly as that sounds, it is what happened. Do we really want to keep holding up the 60's and Apollo as an example of how to get results?

I want very much to see humans on the Moon, Mars and the asteroids (with a proper plan and understanding of why we need to go), but not at the price of repeating the "method" of the 1960's.

My (long-winded) opinion, for what it's work.

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This page contains a single entry by Keith Cowing published on March 24, 2010 5:42 PM.

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