Anybody else see what’s missing in this editorial in the Houston Chronicle by several “NASA astronauts,” asking for more money to “stay the course”?
That’s right. No mention of the fact that the vast majority are former astronauts, now working for ATK, Boeing, Lockmart, etc. This is just a special pleading for more taxpayer money for their employers, and their phony baloney jobs.
People with such conflicts of interest certainly have a right to plead their case, but I think that the paper has a duty to make us aware of their affiliations, and not just describe them as “astronauts.”
And that’s a separate issue, of course from whether or not it’s a good idea for people, and particularly people who want to see large-scale human spaceflight activities for all people, and not just a “program” to send a few government employees at a billion dollars a flight, to take advice from astronauts. There’s nothing in the resume of an astronaut that renders them more qualified than others to provide wise judgement on space policy. It makes no more sense than it does to ask a “scientist,” as reporters often do.
[Update a while later]
There’s something else missing from the piece — it’s real big on flight safety (never mind that it’s not at all obvious that Ares was going to be safer than Shuttle) but says nothing about cost, or the fact that every flight is going to cost over a billion dollars. Apparently they think their lives have infinite value.
Here’s a question for your readers: If and when SpaceX is ready to put humans in their Dragon capsule, who will make up the crew? Will they be NASA astronauts or SpaceX employees? Personally, I’d prefer they were SpaceX employees to prevent NASA from having veto authority over SpaceX. I think it’d be great to have the SpaceX equivalent of Mike Mellville (Scaled Composites employee who first flew SS1 into space) at the controls. It might go a long way to demystify what it takes to fly in space.
Presumably, it would depend on who was paying for the flight. If it’s NASA funds, they’ll select the crew.
To hazard a guess, I’d say the answer is “it depends.” Is it a NASA purchased flight? If yes, I’d bet on it being manned by our highly trained civil servants. For a purely commercial venture? I’d bet on it being manned by private citizens. For what it’s worth, under the “careers” heading on the Bigelow Aerospace website you’ll find a position for “Astronauts.” Under that job heading is “If you are an experienced Astronaut and would like to join our team, please apply at:” Probably makes good business sense to initially recruit from the only pool of “experienced” astronauts.
As a follow up, I’m not sure selecting the “equivalent of Mike Melvill” would do much to “demystify what it takes to fly in space.” Mike was probably more selectively qualified to fly SpaceShip One than most NASA astronauts. Unless, you are saying it takes a test pilot with more than 7600 hours in 130 types of aircraft to be an astronaut?
Mike is a very experienced pilot and a man I greatly respect. He is a good stick and he has guts. I remember his SS1 flight where the instruments blacked out while flying about Mach 2 going almost straight up. Mike looked over his shoulder at the horizon and kept going full throttle. A pilot with less guts would’ve probably aborted.
Mike will also tell you that he’s a high school dropout who had the good fortune to be hired by Burt Rutan a long time ago. Mike and his wife had built Burt’s first homebuilt design (a VariViggen) and Burt was impressed. As good a pilot as Mike is, I doubt he would’ve had an opportunity to be a professional test pilot for a regular aircraft developer, even Cessna or Piper much less Boeing or Lockheed*. Burt had the great good sense to hire Mike because he could do the job even if he lacked engineering credentials. Mike or someone like him would make an inspiring astronaut, IMO.
*The great Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier was also a high school dropout but that from from another era. That was a time when guys like Jack Northrop, Ed Heinneman, and Bill Lear could rise to prominence without college degrees. Ability counted for more than a piece of paper.
What do you mean by “crew”? It’s a source of confusion that NASA refers to everyone on the Shuttle as “crewmembers,” whether they’re pilots or simply passengers headed for ISS.
Is Dragon going to have pilots? I remember SpaceX’s former Washington rep quite vocally insisting that it would be spam in a can, but that was several years back and I doubt NASA would go for that in any case.
If Dragon does have pilots, what are they going to do when they reach ISS? Will they join the ISS expedition crew or return to Earth like the Russian Soyuz taxi crews?
If the pilots are not staying aboard ISS for any length of time, I could see them becoming SpaceX employees rather than NASA employees. (Probably not at first, though.)
Not only was Mike Melvill a high-school dropout, he was also the oldest person ever to pilot a space vehicle.
Remember that Chuck Yeager was not asked to apply for Project Mercury because he did not have a college degree, and Scott Crossfield was not eligible, initially because he was a civilian.
There were plenty of pilots who “did not fit the profile.”