{"id":8107,"date":"2014-06-13T19:18:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T23:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8107"},"modified":"2014-06-13T19:18:05","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T23:18:05","slug":"update-on-shelbys-effort-to-kill-nasa-commercial-cargo-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8107","title":{"rendered":"Update on Shelby’s effort to kill NASA commercial cargo & crew"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of items to follow up on the earlier posts (see here<\/a> and here<\/a>) about Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) to cripple NASA’s commercial cargo and crew program.<\/p>\n

Here is an article by Rand Simberg explaining the issue in detail:\u00a0Congress Threatens To Anchor Private Spaceflight With Extra Costs: A rent-seeking senator doesn’t want competition to shake up NASA jobs<\/em> – Reason.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

And here is a press release from the Space Frontier Foundation<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Senate Attempting to Kill Commercial Spaceflight:
\n<\/a><\/strong>Call Your Representatives Now to Demand Cheap Access to Space<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Silicon Valley, CA<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0The Space Frontier Foundation calls upon Americans to stop efforts by US Senator Richard Shelby (R, AL) to critically damage the emerging commercial spaceflight industry. The Senate FY 15 budget proposals calls for excessive and costly bureaucratic oversight that would not only increase costs for private launch companies exponentially, but delay the Commercial Crew Program by months, if not years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a reason the NASA COTS program worked so quickly and efficiently, and that reason was not due to paperwork and hard-nosed oversight,\u201csaid Foundation President James Pura.\u00a0\u201cTaxpayers could save billions of dollars by letting NASA fly lean, commercial U.S. rockets, and if that means loosening up traditional oversight practices, so be it. Lean, milestone-based payment systems are the way of the future, and let\u2019s enable that process, instead of hindering it.\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n

The specific wording of the text calls for more transparency in commercial space operations by forcing companies to submit certified cost and pricing data to NASA. While this might seem logical on the surface, the cost in time, money, and labor of collecting this data is overwhelming for the companies involved. These frivolous and massively wasteful methods will end up hampering all parties involved \u2013 NASA, commercial companies, and government contractors alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese rules are designed to protect the old, traditional System \u00a0that has kept us from doing anything exciting with humans in space for decades \u2013 and will slam shut the door to space for decades more if allowed to become law,\u201d said SFF Founder Rick Tumlinson. \u201cIf we ever want to return to the Moon, go to Mars, mine asteroids, or even be able to afford to get to and from our own space station, this language must be removed from the congressional bills right away.\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n

New commercial launch companies stand to shake up the space market in a big way. The launch costs for these companies are dramatically cheaper than the foreign space program which the United States is currently using. These reduced costs can only continue to drop as new and improved systems are employed, both in the vehicles themselves and in company logistics. New private spaceflight also brings immeasurable\u00a0cultural benefits to the nation, including the ability for NASA to send explorers to more places, at far less cost.<\/p>\n

The dreams and\u00a0ambitions of entrepreneurs will have a chance to manifest themselves in real hardware in outer space. Seeking funding for experiments and larger space ventures from investors outside the government opens many opportunities, without the bureaucracy that has plagued NASA for decades. Now, the bureaucracy that imposes on NASA threatens to not only increase taxpayer money spent on launches, but also to stifle the ambitions of businesses that drive the current national space culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people and companies out there who stand to make billions of dollars by supporting the status quo in space \u2013 and Senator Shelby is clearly supporting them \u2013 not the bigger picture \u2013 by doing this,\u201d said Space Frontier Foundation Chairman Jeff Feige. \u00a0\u201cThe irony is that jobs in Texas, California, Colorado, Virginia and several other states will be lost, but in its current configuration the very program this legislation aims to help will collapse under its own weight. We are beginning to see the emergence of new companies and real job growth in the space sector. Now is the time to embrace that future, not drag us back to the past.\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n

Click Here and Call Your Congress Person Now!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of items to follow up on the earlier posts (see here and here) about Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) to cripple NASA’s commercial cargo and crew program. Here is an article by Rand Simberg explaining the issue in detail:\u00a0Congress Threatens To Anchor Private Spaceflight With Extra Costs: A rent-seeking senator doesn’t want competition to … Continue reading Update on Shelby’s effort to kill NASA commercial cargo & crew<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-space-policy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-26L","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8091,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8091","url_meta":{"origin":8107,"position":0},"title":"Space Access Society: Update on Shelby’s commercial cargo\/crew poison pill","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest alert from the Space Access Society concerning Sen. Shelby's attempt to undermine NASA's commercial crew and cargo programs: Space Access Society 6\/11\/14 Followup to Space Access Society Political Action Alert 6\/4\/14 and Space Access Society 6\/5\/14 Followup There's been some additional action in the fight over the future\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Space Policy"","block_context":{"text":"Space Policy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/v6RiFxucJn8\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8026,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8026","url_meta":{"origin":8107,"position":1},"title":"Sen. Shelby tries to cripple NASA commercial crew and cargo programs","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Shameless Shelby is up to his usual tricks. Here's the latest from the Space Access Society: \u00a0Space Access Society Political Action Alert 6\/4\/14 Short Fuse - Action Required By 9 am EDT Thursday 6\/5\/14 In a subcommittee markup Tuesday, Senator Richard Shelby (R AL) inserted a requirement in the Senate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Activism"","block_context":{"text":"Activism","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23164,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=23164","url_meta":{"origin":8107,"position":2},"title":"Videos: “Space to Ground” + Other ISS reports – Nov.20.2020","author":"TopSpacer","date":"November 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest episode in NASA's Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station: https:\/\/youtu.be\/HXs-OtvIyxw ** SpaceX's CRS-21 Mission to the Space Station: What's On Board -\u00a0NASA The 21st SpaceX cargo resupply mission that will launch from NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carries\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In Space Infrastructure"","block_context":{"text":"In Space Infrastructure","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/bigelow-xbase-_20160808-001-300x232.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14069,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14069","url_meta":{"origin":8107,"position":3},"title":"“Capitalism in Space” – NASA’s big costly rocket vs commercial alternatives","author":"TopSpacer","date":"March 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Author and journalist\u00a0Bob Zimmerman\u00a0points me to a report, sponsored by the\u00a0Center for a New American Security\u00a0(CNAS), in which he examines\u00a0the current state of development of space transportation by\u00a0NASA and by the private sector. He focuses in particular on a comparison between NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Rockets"","block_context":{"text":"Rockets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/CapitalisminSpaceTable51.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5829,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5829","url_meta":{"origin":8107,"position":4},"title":"Space policy roundup – Dec.26.13","author":"TopSpacer","date":"December 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"*\u00a0Rick Boozer\u00a0urges grassroots support for NASA's Commercial Crew Program :\u00a0U.S Citizens: Demand Maximum Support of NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program - Astro Maven. Commercial Crew has the potential to do for American human spaceflight what Commercial Cargo is already doing for the American satellite launch industry. Making manned spaceflight much cheaper\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Space Policy"","block_context":{"text":"Space Policy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16495,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=16495","url_meta":{"origin":8107,"position":5},"title":"Video: NASA announces astronauts for first commercial crew flights to the ISS","author":"TopSpacer","date":"August 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"NASA is announcing today the selection of astronauts who will fly to the \u00a0International Space Station\u00a0on the Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon transports, which are scheduled to make the first crew launches next year. The event is webcast from NASA's Johnson\u00a0 Space Center in Houston. [ Here is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=37"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/reddit-3-1024x6831-1024x683.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8108,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8107\/revisions\/8108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}