Source: The Orlando Sentinel
Florida’s Democratic Senator, Bill Nelson, the chair of the Senate subcommittee charged with NASA oversight, has sent a letter to his powerful counterpart on NASA appropriations, Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, informing her of his committee’s intent to pass a bipartisan authorization bill for the space agency.
According to the letter, Nelson says his committee:
– Supports President Barack Obama’s priorities of extending the life of the International Space Station until 2020, sustainable exploration and new technology development;
– Identifies Mars as the ultimate destination of a new NASA rocket;
– Supports allowing space shuttle Atlantis, which will be prepared as an emergency rescue mission for the final flight of shuttle Endeavour later this year or early next, to be the last shuttle flight, after an independent safety review;
– Supports funding for private space companies to fly both cargo and humans to the space station, but proposes a slower approach along the lines of NASA’s current $50 million Commercial Crew Development (CCDEV) Program to help companies build “capabilities” for flying astronauts;
– Instructs NASA to initiate development of a heavy-lift rocket in 2011 that will be able to fly beyond low Earth orbit and as a “contingent capability to the ISS.”
– Proposes that the new heavy-lift rocket and spaceship “leverage workforce, contracts, assets and capabilities of the Shuttle, Ares I and Orion.”
Nelson said in the letter that the goals and direction that he proposes “will prove consistent with several of the president’s priorities” in space.
In February, Obama shocked the space community by proposing killing NASA’s Constellation moon rocket program, and outsourcing flights to the space station to private companies on fixed-price contracts.
Although Nelson mentions Ares I and Orion’s contracts and assets – the first-phase rocket and crew capsule, respectively, of Constellation — he does not talk about the program at all.
Gone too is any mention of a vigorous test flight program for which Nelson recently requested $726 million. Nelson’s spokesman, Dan McLaughlin, said that upon reflection lawmakers decided that it was up to “NASA as to how to get started on HLV as soon as possible.”
Nelson’s approach appears to be an attempt at compromise with critics of the president’s plans who have attacked the proposals as a “road to nowhere” that cedes U.S. leadership in space.
While he is not prescribing any particular rocket system, Nelson proposes to start the development of a new heavy lift rocket next year, and not by 2015 as Obama proposed.
Also conspicuous by its absence from the Nelson letter was any mention of the $2 billion the president requested to modernize Kennedy Space Center.
And Nelson’s proposal to follow the CCDEV approachl for private rocket companies could mean that the White House plan to allocate $6 billion over the next five years to drive a new “commercial” model of human spaceflight is going to get severely cut. McLaughlin said that there is “no intent to cut; the $6 billion is needed to get us off reliance on the Russians.”
But the letter suggests otherwise.
“I am proposing that we take a ‘walk before you run’ approach to commercial crew services,” Nelson wrote.
He also said he would require NASA to complete “a number of studies, assessments, and milestones” to ensure that private companies maintain astronaut safety as a “core component.”
The ultimate interpretation and final word rests with Mikulski as the head NASA appropriator in the Senate.
Simply put, Nelson, as an authorizer, provides permission to establish or renew programs. Mikulski decides whether and how much to fund Nelson’s proposals – if at all.
But given how contentious Obama’s 2011 NASA budget has been on Capitol Hill, Nelson’s letter will provide Mikulski and her colleagues with considerable cover as they parse the authorizers’ intentions.
Stay tuned.
In the meantime, here’s Nelson’s letter in full: BN_letter_to_BAM_061410