Some space policy items:
- Lori Garver, who is leaving her job as NASA Deputy Administrator, warns that funding for SLS/Orion is insufficient to meet the schedule but enough to gut the agency’s other priorities:
- Boxer Rebellion – Space KSC – Stephen C. Smith looks at early cost overrun/delay problems with the Freedom space station, the predecessor design to the ISS
- Commercial spaceflight experts discuss Houston’s spaceport opportunities (Video) – Houston Business Journal
Update: Notes From NASA Deputy Administrator Garver’s Farewell Reception – NASA Watch
Re: Garver/SLS
The fact that we’ve yet to hear anything from Senator Monster Rocket (D-FL) in response to Garver or the IG’s recent Orion appraisal seems telling. Are the…ugh…”stakeholders” finally beginning to see the harsh, blinding light of budgetary reason?
There were a several Senatorial rocket engineers involved in the design of this HLV to Nowhere but Nelson was definitely one of them:
“The estimated five-year price tag for the giant rocket is $10 billion, $6 billion for the capsule and $2 billion for the launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, officials said. “What we have here now are the realistic costs,” said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL).” – Sept.14,2011
http://www.billnelson.senate.gov/news/details.cfm?id=334055&
“[…] that the rocket should be ready by the end of 2016, and that NASA could have about $11.5 billion to develop it.
At the time, Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who helped shape the NASA blueprint, said, ‘If we can’t do it for that, then we ought to question whether or not we can build a rocket.'”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/science/space/25nasa.html?pagewanted=all