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It's Official: Constellation Cancelled, No NASA Return to Moon; Shift Towards Private Space February 1, 2010

Posted by Nick Azer in : Constellation, NASA, Norm Augustine, Obama, SpaceX, U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, Vision for Space Exploration , 7comments

With the release of its 2011 budget proposal, the Obama administration has concurrently announced, in no uncertain terms, that the current NASA Constellation program is cancelled.

“The President’s Budget cancels Constellation and replaces it with a bold new approach that invests in the building blocks of a more capable approach to space exploration…” -Official White House website, 2011 Budget fact Sheet

The fact sheet goes on to explain the new direction focusing on private space, including some significant funds:

“Entire new industries”, “catalyzing new businesses” and jobs…As hinted at in his campaign space plan (and by his initial Commerce Secretary appointment of NM Gov. Bill Richardson), Obama clearly believes in the economic potential of an industry-focused NASA. Note that the ISS contract mentioned there is already awarded—SpaceX just needs to prove its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are human-ready for the option to vest, and both Orbital and SpaceX are already the new ISS cargo suppliers.

What does this mean for moon colonization? It means that NASA itself won’t be landing anyone on the moon.

There is a lot of ‘doom and gloom’ out there about how there won’t be humans on the Moon anytime soon, which is a false assertion—the Chinese program is full-steam-ahead, and if private space can be trusted with the ISS contracts at this early stage, then they’re on a course to be putting men on the Moon before long; perhaps even before NASA would have landed men anyways.

Americans will be on the Moon again soon; they’ll just have to hitch a ride with a company or an international effort to get there. And the U.S. will remain a major lunar player, with many private companies and Google Lunar X PRIZE efforts being American.

The fact sheet doesn’t say anything about new human exploration options, such as the ‘Flexible Path‘ suggested by the Augustine panel, so word remains to be seen regarding that, and whether NASA will shift to a manned asteroid mission or mission to Mars’ moons.

Report: Obama Decides on $1 Billion NASA Budget Boost and New Heavy-Lift Launcher? December 20, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : Ares I, Augustine Panel, Base Race, Constellation, NASA, Norm Augustine, Obama, U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee , add a comment

A report by the blog ScienceInsider quotes sources as saying that Obama last week decided, in a meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, on his immediate direction for NASA: an additional $1 Billion in budget, a new heavy lift launcher to replace the Ares 1, and potentially a shift in mission destinations away from the Moon (!).

The Augustine Report (PDF) recommended as an option a manned flight to an asteroid instead of the Moon—as soon as the early 2020s–an option that, according to this new ScienceInsider report, has the White House “more intrigued” than a return to the Moon (which, with a scrapping of the Ares 1 rocket, would be delayed until at least the mid 2020s…much later than the potential manned asteroid landing, or even a landing on a moon of Mars).

With the Moon well within the sights of private space and numerous other nations, it would be perhaps redundant for NASA to have it’s own full-fledged lunar program. NASA skipping the moon, then, is not a death knell to moon colonization, and could be a shrewd choice with many major private space firms (SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, etc.) being American anyways.

Check out the ScienceInsider blog’s report for the full details. An announcement reportedly could come as soon as this week and as late as February, so stay tuned…

Augustine Committee's Final Report Delivered to President Obama October 24, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : Augustine Panel, Norm Augustine, Obama, U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee , add a comment

The Review of Human Space Flight Plans committee (led by Norm Augustine) delivered its final report to President Obama on Thursday (The same day I suddenly didn’t have electricity…couple days of chaos there, but I’m back ;) ), and while there weren’t a lot of surprises per se (a draft version was available before, etc.), it’s still sparked plenty of fresh debate.

“‘The premier finding is that the human spaceflight program that the United States is currently pursuing is on an unsustainable trajectory.” -Norm Augustine, as reported by the Houston Chronicle

The panel found that NASA would need at least $3 billion more a year to complete it’s current slate of missions—an increase that seems unlikely in this economic climate. As a result, this landmark panel should result in big changes in NASA’s plans, especially regarding launch methods (namely scrapping the Ares rockets) and the scope/destinations of missions.

A notable suggestion from the panel is regarding having private companies assist NASA by launching astronauts for them—”space taxis“. This is right in step with Obama’s campaign space plan (which suggested “amplifying NASA’s reach” with the private sector and “unleashing the genius” of private enterprise—see my full analysis), and something I believe Obama may have had in mind all along (and just needed the panel to confirm).

I’ll have a more detailed look at the plan and the reaction up here at Luna C/I soon :)

President Obama Initiates 90-Day Review Panel For Constellation May 10, 2009

Posted by Nick Azer in : Constellation, NASA, Norm Augustine, Obama , add a comment

Coinciding with his budget proposal last week, President Obama announced the creation of a 90-day review panel led by Norman Augustine  (pictured above) to look at NASA’s Constellation program, and any adjustments that could be made to its missions (for both cost and effectiveness).

Augustine (a former Lockheed-Martin President and CEO )  is a veteran of a number of space-related committees, including (as Space Politics‘ excellent post notes) a March 2004 hearing of the House Science Committee on the then-freshly-minted Vision for Space Exploration:

“[I]t would be a grave mistake to try to pursue a space program “on the cheap”. To do so is in my opinion an invitation to disaster. There is a tendency in any “can-do” organization to believe that it can operate with almost any budget that is made available. The fact is that trying to do so is a mistake—particularly when safety is a major consideration.”-Norman Augustine, at the 2004 Vision for Space Exploration hearing (as reported by Space Politics)

Augustine is the only member of the panel so far, with the rest to be named soon. NASA Watch says that “A better choice to lead this review could not have been made“–check out and chime in on their forum on who else should join him, and things you would say to his panel, given the opportunity.

“We are planning to spend billions of dollars on the human space flight program and it’s wise to be sure we’re spending that the way we should…New information becomes available all the time. And similarly, we have a new administration and it would probably be imprudent on their part not to examine this major of a program to be sure such a long term undertaking is still on a course that makes sense to them.” -Norman Augustine, during his 5/8/09 teleconference (as reported by CNET.com)

Sounds like this is a ‘friendly’ review, if you will, and something that a lot of good could come out of. It could also give Obama more time to name his NASA administrator (see my theory on why he’s taking so long.)

Keep an eye here for updates on the additional panelists as they’re announced, and any info that comes along from this :)