An interview with Mike Rogers. At the Space Symposium today he announced that he’s going to introduce legislation to create a Space Corps, attached to the Air Force, presumably per Coyote’s recommendation. This was amusing, though:
Is the development of a replacement for the Atlas 5 rocket’s RD-180 moving quickly enough? Is it moving in a direction you’re satisfied with?
Well, it’s not quick enough. I’m very happy that we’re staying after it. My subcommittee, our full committee, this Congress, is committed to not stop until we have an American-made engine that can get our national security space assets launched. And we’re not going to stop. I’m encouraged. I think we’re pretty close to getting a new engine that’s going to be viable.
Pretty sure he wants to engine that will be built in Alabama, even though no rocket manufacturer wants it.
It’s funny (in a cynical way) to see Rogers’ conservative stance on many issues; but when it comes to funding for rockets, he’s still a citizen of Porkopolis. Quite the hypocrite.
Yes, Jon. The depressing feeling I get is that the Jacksonian populism now so prevalent often overlooks this sort of LBJian attitude, in either Republicans or Democrats. It was painful to see Richard Shelby getting awards from TEA Party groups for budget cutting, and this is just another example.
If the Space Corps goes through, however, it will be interesting to see what its focus of attention will be. How close it is to the “Space Guard” concepts may also affect commercial developments’ spread.
Space Corps and Space Guard are very different things, though related.
United States Air Force Space Corps? Somewhere, Hap Arnold is laughing.
To clarify, that was a comment on the irony of the Air Force neglecting space the same way the Army had neglected aviation.
I think the Space Corps creation makes sense. What are they gonna transfer to it? Ballistic missiles? The Defense satellite network? X-37?
Satellite tracking would be a good start. Anything space-related that the Air Force does now that isn’t directly related to warfighting.
No, it would do things directly related to warfighting, just as the Army Air Corps did. It would do everything that the the USAF is currently doing in space.
And it would neglect the things that we want out of a “Space Guard”, unless we can get them to include it. One could wonder if that is wise, however. The “Space Guard” activities might well find themselves in the same sort of situation inside a “Space Corps that MilSpace activities find themselves in within the Air Force. That is why the mix of activities is so important to commercial flight. It might be better to make 2 separate organizations, …one uncompromisingly military, and one a specifically paramilitary organization.