Is NASA Being Set Up To Fail (Again)?

[n2doc]

According to space analyst Rand Simberg, Congress is putting pork before progress by micromanaging NASA, asking them to do too much with too little, and, once again, setting America’s space agency up for failure.


July 27, 2010 3:11 PM
In all of the furor over the president's new space policy, announced in February with the release of its planned NASA budget, and with all of the hyperbolic commentary about how commercial space isn't ready to take on the tasks of delivering astronauts to orbit, one stark fact has received far too little attention. Simply put, NASA has not successfully developed a new launch system in three decades. The last one was the Space Shuttle, and it was successful only by the minimal criteria that it eventually flew.

It has not been for lack of trying. The history of the agency over the past quarter of a century is littered with failed attempts to build a new system to replace it. This extends from the X-30 Orient Express of the late eighties and the X-33/VentureStar program of the late nineties, through the Space Launch Initiative early in this decade, to the recently canceled Ares program.

Last fall, the Augustine panel had declared that Constellation (which consisted primarily at that point of the Ares I launcher and the Orion crew capsule) was on an "unsustainable trajectory." Part of the intent of the new space policy was to recognize that building cost-effective space transportation is not now and has never been the agency's strong suit, and to refocus it on those things (such as exploration beyond low earth orbit) that it does well.

Unfortunately, the White House and the space agency didn't adequately coordinate with Congress before it rolled out its new plan, and it ran into a buzz saw on the Hill, because for most of those overseeing the NASA budget there, the primary purpose of the agency is not to accomplish useful things in space, but to ensure continued jobs in the states and congressional districts of its overseers.

Over the past two weeks, the empire has struck back.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/nasa/nasa-senate-appropriations-constellation

[w4rma]

1. Considering ObamaRahm's penchent for privatizing everything good that they can: Yes. (nt)

[joshcryer]

2. Privitizing the space industry was the first good attempt to actually change NASA for the better...

...we've seen since its inception. As it stands now the Republicans are trying to keep it as a porkbarrel spending agency.

[dbbolick]

3. NASA is on mission with Obama's new direction

Read this article and it may change many opinions on Obama's plan for the space agency:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5665060/obama_gets_it_right_with_nasas_new_pg2.html?cat=15

[joshcryer]

4. Congress is sabatoging it by forcing NASA to build a heavy lift vehicle, while sucking funds dry.

Basically they're trying to save jobs.