Fri, Aug 26, 2011
Says Obama Administration Is Dragging Its Feet On Manned
Spaceflight Development
Following the failure of the Russian Progress resupply mission
to reach orbit, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Ranking Member
of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee,
and Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) renewed their call for a quick
decision and announcement of the design of the next U.S.
human-rated launch vehicle.
"Today we received word from NASA that
the Russian Progress resupply mission for the International Space
Station (ISS) failed to reach orbit and deliver supplies to the
ISS," the senators said in a jointly-released statement. "In light
of the failure of the Russian Progress vehicle, it is fortunate the
Congress authorized the final flight of the space shuttle to
provide supplies to ensure long term viability of the ISS. Without
the cargo provided by the shuttle, the ISS, and our astronauts,
would be in a more precarious logistical situation. This failure
underscores the importance of successful development of our own
National capabilities and at the same time demonstrates the risks
with having limited options for ISS supply and crew rotation. As we
have already seen with the multi-year delay with commercial
providers of cargo to the space station, the country would greatly
benefit from the timely implementation of the NASA Authorization
Act of 2010 and development of the Space Launch System (SLS) as a
back-up system."
The Senators said that NASA received the independent cost
assessment for the SLS that was requested by OMB last Friday, and
the office expected to be briefed on the results of this assessment
Thursday. "This additional independent cost assessment confirms
what NASA officials have known for months: The NASA approach to
human space flight is sound, achievable, and can be initiated
within our currently constrained fiscal limitations. Regrettably,
the Administration has used a series of redundant studies to stall
the progress of our nation's human space exploration program. It is
now time to make a decision," the Senators said.
"The Assessment conducted by Booz Allen
Hamilton makes clear that the cost projections provided by NASA for
review are reasonable point estimates for budget planning in the
near-term 3-5 year budget horizon. In other words, there is no
cost-estimate-related basis for continuing to delay the commitment
to proceed with the SLS development plans that were required by the
Congress to have been delivered in the Section 309 Report that was
due on January 10th. While some have highlighted that the
assessment characterizes some of the cost estimates provided by
NASA as "optimistic", the report findings underscore that the lack
of such a vehicle "architecture" decision, and commitment to
proceed with program development, is the primary reason that some
of the materials provided to Booz Allen Hamilton for review were
incomplete.
"We strongly encourage NASA to immediately announce this week - not
next month - the design for their next launch vehicle, which will
halt the further loss of skilled aerospace workers now poised to be
laid off from the NASA manned spaceflight program," they said.
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