Hutchison Supports Glenn Comments on Shuttle

Where is the other shoe?

"until commercial cargo capabilities come on line"

Do I take it that Hutchinson is getting on board here?

It was clear 6 years ago that around the time the last STS missions flew, there's going to be a lot of pleas to keep it going, but that was addresses during the wind-down phase when program managers explained in great detail that once you start winding it down, there's no turning back.

Time to move on, really.

Sen. Hutchison, how much money do you have? This fantasy of stretching STS will cost quite a bit, and aside from feebly demonstrating we can still visit our ISS, none of that effort will carry anything of value into the future. STS hardware is not the basis for future US HSF. Unrelated, in fact.

If you want space prestige, you demonstrate that you can get to ISS as easily as flying to Kansas City. We can't say that now, but for sure we would never get that from STS or CxP.

"I have proposed several options to extend the space shuttle, some of which do not require additional flights."

If it doesn't involve more flights, then it doesn't close the gap. So what good is it? After spending taxpayer money I'd want a benefit -- and something better than other things I could have spent it on.

"We need time to assess the station's equipment needs"

I'd like statements from NASA and Roscosmos about this "need". Think they'll agree with Hutchison?

I have read the testimonies of Neil Armstong, Eugener Cernan, Jim Lovel and Tom Young and they are very impressive. Although it is healthy to encourage commercial transportation to the ISS it is a major risk to stop work on the Cx program. The Orion should not just be a crew rescue vehicle. We are going back to the drawing board in 1989 when we reviwed the CRV concept. That is putting us 20 years behind where we are today. These 4 individuals have an excellent experience base on what it takes to go to the moon and beyond. The testimonies carried a lot of substance. Jeff Hanley was an exceptional Program Manager and having worked on the ISS and Cx I share the vision and experience of both programs. I was inspired into an aerospace career by the great leap forward with Apollo 11 and I have always been an enthusiastic supporter of good aerospace and systems engineering concepts and architecture. Cx had some challenges but a requirement to develop a vehicle that could go to the ISS and the moon would be a challenge also to the commerical sector. The new letter to Congress signed by several new players in the field has no substance when compared to the testimonies of the above 4 individuals. There are a lot of new players in the commercial field who have little to no experience to the challenges of human space exploration. So a 50 person sign up sheet and letter to COngress should be regarded in the proper context vs. the 4 veterans in the field. It is truly discouraging to watch a superb contractor base affected with layoffs by the so called new vision to 'nowhere'. What is going to the asteroids going to buy us? I agree without a doubt that the President was ill advised on this vision. I hope that Senator Huthinson and others can pursue Congress to keep Cx alive and reinstate Jeff Hanley back to the Program Manager position. Charlie Bolden needs to step up to his position as NASA Administrator and make things right.

Aerospace Consultant

Since Obama doesn't plan to build anything or go anywhere, there's plenty of money to keep the space shuttle going.

In 2009, the shuttle was being funded at about $3 billion a year and Constellation was being funded at $3.4 billion a year. The Obama budget also calls for increasing the NASA budget on average by about $2 billion a year over the next 5 years. So there's plenty of money to continue the shuttle.

Marcel F. Williams

Since Obama doesn't plan to build anything or go anywhere, there's plenty of money to keep the space shuttle going.

That's political hyperbole, and it's false. The Obama plan is not nothing; that's just your way of saying you're not impressed. The money's going to projects related to HSF to LEO and beyond LEO, it's just not CxP.

I think you need to look a little closer at (a) what's in the Feb budget, the Merchant 7 press conference, and other public statements; and (b) realistic estimates for restarting STS and getting to the first new flight. There won't be a giant pinata in there to pay for STS. And restarting STS would be a detour and a burden, and not quick.

I applaud you. Very nicely written note.

These people are stupid. It's too late to continue Shuttle. It was shut down a couple of years ago. As for Hanley being an "exceptional" Program Manager, he was an exceptionally bad one. Everyone in charge during Constellation were by definition bad managers. It is just too much of a failure to believe otherwise.

> I hope that Senator Huthinson and others can pursue Congress to keep Cx alive

Either you support destroying ISS to pay for Constellation or you demand more money to pay for both. The first one doesn't make sense and there is no money for the second. Got any better ideas?

The one thing Constellation and Shuttle proponents share is obliviousness to cost. Sorry but there is a limit to how much people will pay for your childhood fantasies.

Wow, simply wow.

Another "wow".

Sorry but the Obama budget is not funding the development of any new vehicles to take humans beyond LEO. And the idea that we should wait another 5 years to decide on an HLV is ludicrous; NASA has been studying this issue for nearly 20 years. Enough already!

And you certainly don't move beyond LEO by committing even more money to the ISS beyond 2015. In fact, he plans to increase LEO funding for the ISS by a billion annually by 2014. That's $3 billion a year for a LEO program! That's $20 to $30 billion over a decade committed to the ultimate LEO program!

The only good thing about the Obama budget is the fact that he's giving approximately $1.2 billion a year to private industry to develop their own manned vehicles to hopefully do their own thing in the New Frontier without being dependent on tax payer dollars or NASA.

Marcel F. Williams

I support John Glenn's statement. There is plenty of money out there. The money isn't going to NASA. The money is going for Cash for Clunkers (I still have my 92 Buick), pay for more teachers, extending unemployment benefits, and mortgage refianicing. Take a few billion from each of these programs, spread over 3 or 4 years and NASA could keep flying Shuttle, continue ISS, and go back to the Moon.

If there is no money to pay NASA to go to the Moon now, why does anybody believe there will be money in 5 years. Obama's health care program kicks in in 5 years and it will require billions that have to come from somewhere.

In 5 years I do not believe the the US will have a human space flight program.

Interesting. When the replacement system was going to heavily involve the Johnson Space Center in Texas, Senator Hutchison didn't seem too concerned about the gap. Now that CxP has been put out of it's misery, suddenly it's a huge problem.

As I said in another post, the horses have already bolted and it's too late to close the barn door.

Mike