Augustine meeting reports

The Augustine panel meeting just ended. Here are some reports and commentary:
/-- Augustine Panel: NASA Constellation program unaffordable - Write Stuff/Orlando Sentinel
/-- The Last Public Meeting - Transterrestrial Musings
/-- Watch It Live: White House Panels Narrows Options - Flame Trench/Florida Today
/-- Watch It Live: Mars First Mission Dropped By Panel - Flame Trench/Florida Today

Update: Some of the charts are now posted on the meeting webpage.

Update: Another item from Orlando Sentinel: UPDATE: Presidential panel says NASA's manned-flight future is bleak - Write Stuff/Orlando Sentinel

If there was one winner Wednesday, it was commercial space companies, which the panel said should take cargo, crew and possibly rocket fuel and fuel tanks into orbit. Ride urged $200 million more to further develop fledgling cargo capabilities and $2.5 billion for competitive programs that would help private companies develop capsules to ferry astronauts to the space station and elsewhere in space.

"We have all come to realize how important [commercial] cargo is to the future of ISS," said Ride.

Posted 08/12/09 | 19:28:04 by TopSpacer | Filed under: NASA Exploration Systems

Comments

Flogging a dead horse, but... for $18B/yr, NASA can only manage to FAIL? Would we actually have to increase the NASA budget in order to close the agency?

Posted by Patrick at 08/13/09 11:21:53

Patrick, I think most interesting is that the Committee has determined that, to eliminiate the shuttle infrastrucutre, it would take between 3-11 Billion dollars - that is a huge gap

Posted by Ferris Valyn at 08/13/09 13:32:46

Ferris:

I saw that $3-11 billion figure in one of the Committee's sand charts and almost fell over. The broad range of the figure is perplexing and suggest a low confidence in the true scope of the task that awaits - what are the hidden costs of closing down Shuttle facilities? Imagine what future spacefaring capabilities one could stimulate with the same dollar figure. Unfortunate.

However, if the Committee can persuade the White House and Congress the funding commercial crew to that $2.5 billion figure, there is hope.

Posted by John Kavanagh at 08/13/09 16:56:14

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