[Update a couple minutes later]
NASA is unsure how long commercial crew will be delayed:
NASA officials say the reduced funding for the commercial partnership to replace the space shuttle will delay the program two years and maybe longer.
So, at $450M per year to the Russians, the geniuses on the Hill have just increased out-year expenditures by almost a billion dollars to save half a billion next year. This is why the budget is a mess.
The question that should be asked, whose failure is this: Congress or commercial space advocates who have failed to make the case?
Well, Mark, commercial space advocates made the case well enough that Newt Gingrich is able to understand it.
In fact, he’s understood it for years ago. You and your friends still can’t understand it today.
Is that because Newt lacks the intellectual prowess needed to understand the superiority of government monopoly over private enterprise? Or could there be some other explanation?
(For his next trick, Mark will blame the Postal Service’s woes on the failure of Fedex to make the case for private delivery services.)
I don’t follow the politics of space closely, did I miss a hearing where space advocates gave testimony to congress?
Actually, it’s NASA’s fault. Go watch the commercial crew program workshop and forum. Go watch the House hearings on commercial crew. They took what was a simple partnership with industry and turned it into a “procurement”. Congress recognized that the procurement process was a big fat turd so they declined to support it.
Maybe some Congresscritters are getting kickbacks from the Russians.
The money is a major concern, and that’s assuming the Russians don’t jack up their fees. What concerns me more is the national security costs of being dependent on Russia. That gives them huge leverage, and they WILL use it.
If Congress was serious about saving money, they’d kill SLS. I think Falcon Heavy is the way to go for that. SLS is supposed to have a bigger payload, but so what? Just do two FH launches and assemble in orbit if you need that kind of mission mass.
The key to space is cost per pound to orbit. I’d be all for heavy lift *IF* and only if it offered reduced cost per pound. Falcon Heavy looks like it will. SLS is certain not to, especially once you add in development cost.
By cutting CCDEV and keeping SLS, congress hasn’t thrown out the baby with the bathwater, it’s thrown out the baby and kept the bathwater.
If Congress was serious about saving money
You owe me a new monitor.
The overall sentiment doesn’t bother me anymore, but its sad they’re starting with commercial crew. If you’re gonna start there, might as well cut a bit more to the chase and defund manned spaceflight. It will save about 5 years of worthless spending. Turn over regulation of manned spaceflight to the FAA and tell NASA to check out the Sun, Mars, nearby rocks, and blackholes.
Summary: Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriations “Mini-Bus”
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – NASA is funded at $17.8 billion in the conference agreement, which is $648 million below last year’s level and $924 million below the President’s request.
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – The bill includes $8.1 billion for the FBI – an increase of $192 million above last year’s level.
• Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) – The DEA is funded at $2 billion, an increase of $20 million above last year’s level and $7 million below the President’s request.
• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) – The legislation contains $1.2 billion for the ATF, which is an increase of $39 million above last year’s level.
• U.S. Marshals Service – The Marshals Service is funded at $1.2 billion in the bill, which is an increase of $49 million above last year and $70 million below the request. Within this funding, the conference agreement
• Federal Prison System – The Bureau of Prisons is funded at $6.6 billion, which is an increase of $260 million above last year and $182 million below the request.
• Rail – The Federal Railroad Administration is funded at $1.6 billion, which is $6.6 billion below the President’s request and $326 million above last year’s level.
Do the math.
The President requested $18.724B The house passed $16.810B. the Senate $17.938B. The minibus bill reconciled this as $17.8B.
So the President requested an increase of $276M over last year.
The House voted $1.914B less.
The Senate voted $786M less
and the minibus funded $924M less.
It seems republicans like NASA least.
Not that I understand US politics. I have enough trouble understanding my own.
Yep, just enough to keep the firms addicted to NASA money, and away from true commercial markets, but not enough to make any major progress. The perfect mix to set true commercial HSF back a decade. And you wonder why Bigelow has gone into stand-by mode for the duration.
I expect they’ll downselect to Boeing soon and SpaceX will be free to use their CRS contract money to actually pursue real markets. Some people accuse me of being pessimistic. Others accuse me of being optimistic. That’s what happens when you’re a realist.
I disagree. SpaceX will be selected as the Borg needs to keep them on the hook in order to assimilate New Space into the “collective”. Yes, CCCP is turning out to be as disastrous as X-33 was to the future of commercial HSF.