NASA HLV Development: Hurry Up And Wait

Well that's it then. NASA and the fed have compromised. The DIRECT rocket gets its $11,000,000,000.

See you in 2017 I guess.

Does it matter for this development that they do not yet know what will ride in it? Or will it be enough to define the mass carrying capability and a volume envelope?

I assume the new rocket will only be launched to LEO. Right?

This is good news. It seems a continuing resolution that gets NASA to work right away is very likely.

MSFC has been getting ready for the HLV Program. A Program Manager and Deputy have been picked but not announced, and people are wondering what the production deal will be like for the HLV core.

More details on this..
http://nasaengineer.com/?p=1268

We need to stop with the side mount. It will be something like DIRECT but NOT DIRECT. Really sad to see so much time (AND MONEY) wasted on a poor concept while the obvious winner gets kicked to the curb because of personal ego and politics.

I think EarthShine has it correct with his questions. NASA doesn't even know what the parameters will be. Not picking on NASA, it is just way to big, fat, and slow. NASA is in chaos.

Sorry, had to rant.

VR
RE327

Marshall Director Robert Lightfoot accompanied Garver to the editorial board meeting and said his center is ready to get to work on a heavy-lift rocket. "We don't need to study it anymore," Lightfoot said.

Seriously. Let's go.

This is unfortunately another empty vision. Nothing will ever come of this. The smart young engineers know this too and NASA will have trouble recruiting any. Fool me once... It is worth reading this piece in Aviation Week:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/awst/2010/08/16/AW_08_16_2010_p58-245003.xml&headline=Aerospace%20Must%20Revive%20Its%20Spirit

I am confused about why NASA is building a HLV when they have no destination. Is this a project to keep NASA busy and the end item is a vehicle that can lift Xmt to LEO and the nxt administration will determine the destination. It seems like the cart is before the horse.

I must say I am not surprised as I am a student of NASA history. If you study history, keep your personal agenda out your thought process, check your emotions at the door - it was pretty easy to see where things would go. The only surprise this time was how long it took to get to the final answer. But glad they did and glad it was Direct out of MSFC. For all those people who are still screaming "but but but we don't need a HLV..." Well get over it. It is going happen.

So, Ms. Garver is now out there at least representing the failed Presidential space vision. NASA has officially devolved into a jobs program if for no other reason than to declare a truce with the Alabama, Florida, and Texas Congressional delegations.

Where was Ms. Garver during these months after the February budget announcement debacle? Does she get to take credit for the compromise instead of Charlie? And now the administration is still on record wanting to kill Constellation.... So, where is this so critical HLV going to fly? And, what exactly is the payload?

NASA is an agency with so much capability and promise, with so little leadership, vision and purpose.

This is sad....

Please refer to, http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/08/congressional-s.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nasawatch%2FAekt+%28NASA+Watch%29
I think Mr. Monroe has it right!!! This is how the outside world views what goes on at NASA. Like it or not the funding comes from us! NASA needs to change and quickly! The VSE may not be the end all, but at least it was a vision. What is it that we have now? Just a bunch of confused arguing factions wasting time and Billions of dollars!

Simply put, the vehicle's first mission will be US-indigenous crew transfer to the ISS. This is because Congress has zero confidence that "SpaceX", which appears to have become shorthand for Commercial Space for some reason, has the ability to do so in a reasonable time frame or safely. Because they do not think that a commercial spacecraft will ever meet the needs of NASA for crew transport, so a full-NASA vehicle is needed for that mission.

Just to put things in perspective, the Senate bill calls for this vehicle (call it Orion/SLS) to be operational no later than 2016. That is beyond the far end of a second hypothetical Obama term. Only then can we seriously even start talking about the timeline for BLEO missions, even simple ones such as GEO satellite maintenance/disposal or lunar & NEO flybys and orbiters.

FWIW, I think that a lunar orbiter in 2018 (the Apollo 8 hemicenteniary) and an NEO rendezvous in 2020 are both doable. However, the latter would be a white-knuckle ride in terms of untried technology when it comes to life support and radiation mitigation.

Ben, I can't help wondering if Congress has zero confidence in SpaceX, or if it is the other way around.

In other words, Congress is afraid that SpaceX will be able to build a crew capable craft in the near future, for a fraction of what NASA can do it for. For this reason, the politicians want to start on a NASA HLV ASAP, before SpaceX can prove themselfs.