The sequestration storm will soon hit NASA:
- NASA’s sequestration plan would bring commercial crew to a halt – Space Politics
- Sequester Would Delay NOAA’s GOES-R Series 2-3 Years, Cut NASA $727 Million from FY13 Request – spacepolicyonline
- Sequester Update – Future Planetary Exploration
- Tweeting a solution to sequestration? Probably not. – Space Politics
- Impacts of March 1, 2013, Sequester on FY 2013 President’s Budget Request for NASA – NASA (pdf)
Update: If these comments to the Space Politics posting are correct, then commercial crew will be cut less than it initially seemed and SLS/Orion will be cut more. The numbers are complicated by questions over reconciling the percentage cuts with the funding under the continuing resolution (CR) , with what the administration originally requested for 2013, and whether the cuts apply to the whole fiscal year or to what remains.
The cut will apparently be taken from the Presidents request of over $800M for commercial crew and no from the amount in the CR of about half that. So it will result in a cut of about a quarter, which is a lot but it doesn’t zero out the program.
Here is an AvWeek item about the cuts: Cuts Would Hit Commercial Crew Efforts Hard – Aviation Week.
So the high-operating-cost Shelby Launch System goes unscathed, while the order-of-magnitude cheaper commercial systems to replace the shuttle get cancelled/delayed, forcing us to relay on the Russians for additional years for ISS crew lifts?
Senator, you and Senator Nelson are threatening national security and wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. (Nothing will change, but we need to tell the general public about this. I know, bigger concerns in the nation … )
-Spike MacPhee
After reading the first three dozen comments at the Space Policy thread, I am greatly cheered. The Shelby Launch System does take major budget hits, and commercial crew not as bad as I thought, though this all may change in markup or before.
Hi Spike,
Thanks for the comments. Yes, it appears that CC will be cut less than initially feared and SLS won’t escape unscathed.
However, it’s sort of like the relief in finding out that only one’s leg is to be amputated and not one’s legs, arms and head! 🙂