By Emelie Rutherford
Key lawmakers and the White House signaled support last week for moving forward with building space technologies based on NASA’s Constellation manned-spaceflight program, which President Barack Obama has sought to dismantle.
The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved a policy-setting NASA authorization bill July 15. It would direct the space agency to begin building a heavy-lift rocket now instead of Obama’s previous target date of 2015 and to continue working on a crew capsule based on the ill-fated Orion program.
Two key NASA budget-writers–Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies subcommittee–have spoken favorably about the authorization bill; NASA authorizers are hoping those key appropriators will seek a similar NASA plan when they craft the budget-setting NASA appropriations bill for fiscal year 2011.
Also, to NASA’s congressional supporters’ delight, the White House issued a statement in support of the legislation.
“The bill contains the critical elements necessary for achieving the president’s vision for NASA, it recognizes that Constellation is no longer the right program for achieving our boldest ambitions, it helps launch a commercial space transportation industry, it embraces the president’s proposal for an additional $6 billion for NASA, it extends the International Space Station and it represents an important first step towards helping us achieve the key goals the president laid out,” White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.
The Obama administration sent Congress a FY ’11 NASA budget request in February that called for eliminating Constellation, a space-shuttle-replacement effort intended to return astronauts to the moon that has included the developmental Ares I launch vehicle and Orion crew capsule and future Ares V heavy-lift rocket. The White House also announced a controversial plan to invest in private space companies that could help carry astronauts to low-Earth orbit.
Yet Obama, after receiving pushback from Congress, during an April speech in Florida pledged to begin building a new heavy-lift rocket, a replacement to Ares V, by 2015. He also announced he directed the space agency to immediately begin developing a crew-rescue vehicle, based on the developmental Orion, which could be used as a backup to bring astronauts home from the International Space Station (ISS).
The NASA authorization bill the Senate Commerce Committee marked up yesterday would modify that April plan.
The bill sets a target date for re-starting manned space flights of 2016, instead of 2025 as the White House had proposed. To achieve that accelerated schedule, the legislation calls for immediately building a heavy-lift rocket.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Space and Science subcommittee, noted to reporters yesterday that Obama in April talked of building a new heavy-lift rocket in 2015 or earlier.
“So that’s what we’ve done in setting the policy in this bill; we’re starting earlier,” Nelson said during a press conference at the Capitol. He and a bipartisan group of pro- NASA senators portrayed the committee’s bill as a bipartisan compromise with the White House.
“It is somewhat of a miracle that we have been able to achieve the unanimity in this consensus, including the White House,” Nelson said, standing with Sens. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Bob Bennett (R-Utah), and David Vitter (R-La.).
NASA, for its part, issued a June 29 Broad Agency Announcement for a Heavy Lift and Propulsion Technology Systems Analysis and Trade Study. The request to industry seeks input on heavy-lift system concepts and propulsion technology by July 29.
The authorization bill that cleared the Senate committee yesterday also calls for continuing work on Orion technologies, but not in the way Obama proposed in April.
“The Administrator shall pursue the development of a multi-purpose crew vehicle to be available as soon as practicable, and no later than for use with the Space Launch System,” a draft of the legislation says. “The vehicle shall be based on designs and materials developed in the Orion project.”
The Space Launch System refers to the follow-on launch vehicle to the Space Shuttle that will carry people beyond low-Earth orbit.
The bill directs NASA to begin development as soon as possible of the Space Launch System, while heeding the administration’s request to end the Ares I rocket.
Still, the draft of the legislation says: “In developing the Space Launch System…and the multi-purpose crew vehicle, … the (NASA) Administrator shall, to the extent practicable, utilize existing contracts, investments, workforce, industrial base, and capabilities from the Space Shuttle and former Orion and Ares 1 projects, including Space Shuttle-derived components and Ares 1 components that use existing United States propulsion systems, including liquid fuel engines, external tank or tank-related capability, and solid rocket motor engines, and associated testing facilities, either in being or under construction as of the date of enactment of this Act.”
The authorization bill also proposes extending the Space Shuttle for another year, instead of retiring it this year, and paying for ISS operations through at least 2020, instead of 2015.
The Senate Commerce Committee calls for funding these added investments by cutting funding the White House requested for NASA research and development projects and for bolstering a fledgling private-sector space industry.
Those proposed cuts have not sat well with the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast, which likes the White House’s initial proposal for bolstering commercial space companies and investing in new research initiatives.
Nelson argued the committee’s bill “still preserves what we think will be an exciting new commercial venture.”
For Constellation, ATK [ATK] has been the prime contractor for the Ares I first stage, Boeing [BA] has developed the Ares I upper stage, and Lockheed Martin [LMT] has been making Orion.