The Space Frontier Foundation…has issued a whitepaper calling NASA’s post-space shuttle plans the initial stages of complete failure. As the first step in a long-term campaign, the organization said it considers the agency’s Crew Exploration Vehicle effort “a dead-end that is both unaffordable and unsustainable.”
“America is the most powerful and wealthy nation in the world because we are better at business, not because we are better at bureaucracy,” said Bob Werb, the foundation’s chairman.
The paper claims that the “gap in U.S. human spaceflight” is likely to be much larger than NASA has led politicians to think, that the agency appears to have used a “bait and switch” tactic to ignore national security policies, and why U.S. commercial vehicles and the growing private space industry are the solutions.
“The President’s Commission report used the word ‘commercial’ over 40 times in describing how NASA could get us back to the Moon and on to Mars in a way that would allow us to stay and expand there,” said SFF co-founder Rick Tumlinson.
“Yet the agency is spending less than 1 percent of its budget on innovative commercial approaches. Just like the space station, we are watching another NASA train wreck in progress, and just like the station, they are trying to hide the facts,” Tumlinson added.
I don’t agree with some of their analysis and ideology; but, Werb’s quote on business and bureaucracy is worth the whole report!
You can download the 18-page .pdf here.
While I haven’t yet read the report, one must point out that ‘commercial’ alternatives to access space do NOT exist, nor have they ever existed for the 20 something years I’ve been hearing and reading about them.
NASA has been run by morons for years. Wastfull spending, overblown buerocracy and no clear vision have made NASA what it is today, a failure. It amazes me how there has been no serious replacement for the shuttle after all these years and there would still be none if it hadn’t been for Columbia. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Chinese beat us back to the moon and that would be shame.
I have to agree that this program seems to lack visionary thinking.
The vehicles were conceived for a Presidential distraction, I mean mandate. I seriously doubt these vehicles will pass the mock up stage. Somebody has to realize that interplanetary space travel, if currently feasible at all, is too expensive for a single nation. There’s no way Congress will maintain adequate funding for the 20+ years this will take. The money would be better spent on R&D and robotic missions. Yeah I know all about that, “Boldly go…”, crap.
The simple fact that NASA is ‘run by morons’ and that nobody has yet built a better alternative to the vastly expensive and complex shuttle just prove my point – there aren’t ANY commercial alternatives to NASA. Not that there will never be, I hope there will, but there’s none, and that’s because IT’S HUGELY DIFFICULT AND EXPENSIVE.
Rutan is only doing suborbital flights, he’s not in the same situation NASA was in the early 60s, he has no means and no know-how to build an orbital ship just yet. If there’s anyone who can, I’ll bet on him, but he isn’t there yet, and IMVHO it will take some time if it EVER gets done. By ‘ever’ I mean in my lifetime, and I’m 40…
AND yes, there’s no visionary thinking in this program. NASA has few or no brilliant people left, so it’s retreating to what it thinks it can do safely. But they’re wrong. The know-how that made Apollo is long gone. NASA would be wiser to ‘run forward’ instead of backward. At least while the people who make the shuttle fly are still around. If the CEV fails (and going to space is always complex and prone to failures), America is gambling with the possibility of losing access to space for a while.
And another topic for discussion – has anyone noticed how the shuttle is ONCE AGAIN being used for political purposes? I mean, it’s barely a few weeks since Discovery landed, after Columbia burned down and the previous mission finished with so many problems. And already NASA has a lauch planned for Aug. 28th!!! With yet another before year’s end. Are we ‘back to operational’?
‘Operational’ is a deadly word when it refers to the Shuttle. It’s never been ‘operational’, always EXPERIMENTAL. That means one must STUDY the results of EVERY flight, and not go blindly running into another flight, as if it’s ‘routine’.
There’s hasn’t yet been enough time to study what went right and wrong with STS-121 – and yes, a few things went wrong. But there’s political pressure to build the Space Station. Is that a good reason to rush into launch? I doubt the next mission will be as safe and ‘flawless’ as this one.
NASA hasn’t learned.
And again, I hope all will go well, for the sake of the shuttle, of your (USA) space program, and of the astronauts, the only real heroes of our time.
already NASA has a lauch planned for Aug. 28th!!! With yet another before year’s end
There MAY be other reasons. Many of the shuttle’s various missions have been highly classified. I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t some ongoing black operation that was/is worth (in someone’s opinion) all of this risk. Repairing or remissioning a satellite, for instance.
My faith in NASA was lost when the shuttle was destroyed by foam. Foam derailed a multibillion dollar program that previously sent men to walk on the moon. Damn.
Thoughts and questions on space things:
After weather and commsats, Hubble has been the most useful piece of equipment EVER placed in space. Yet, the powers that be aren’t interested in maintaining it. St00pid.
Other than human sustainability in zero G, what useful science has the ISS produced? Can any of you tell me that? I know, I could go look it up – I ask that you don’t look it up, just tell me what you know right now.
Why go to Mars? The money spent on researching that endeavor would best be spent here on Earth, on things such as feeding staving people (in the US or elsewhere), making sure everybody everywhere has a roof over their head. After that, we can work on making fuel-efficient vehicles, building windmill power plants, and learning to take care of the Earth again. Eye on the ball, folks: food, clothing, shelter for everybody, first.
How about figuring out a way to stop the endless middle east conflict? I propose public education, but I’m a wildman.
I’m grateful that NASA, the cold war, and the space race has given me this spiffy PC, the ‘net, Tang, Velcro, pens that write upside-down, and all that other neat stuff — but, we REALLY REALLY need to get back to basics, at least for a while.
Pass the joint.
“Why go to Mars? The money spent on researching that endeavor would best be spent here on Earth, on things such as feeding staving people (in the US or elsewhere), making sure everybody everywhere has a roof over their head. After that, we can work on making fuel-efficient vehicles, building windmill power plants, and learning to take care of the Earth again. Eye on the ball, folks: food, clothing, shelter for everybody, first.
How about figuring out a way to stop the endless middle east conflict? I propose public education, but I’m a wildman.”
Why go to mars? Humans need to learn to live and colonize other planets if the human race is to survive. A natural disaster on this planet and the human race is toast.
As far as feeding all the worlds peoples, the money wasted on that would be monumental. How many millions do we send to Africa that never gets to the people because the continent is so corupt that nothing or no one can help, sad fact, but true.
Ok how about this country. Many of the homeless are that way because of their lifestyle, drug addition, alcoholism. Sure you can try and house them or get them jobs, but in the end, most will piss it all away for their next fix. Throwing good money after bad.
So yes, I would rather spend money to go Mars then to waste it on the world’s losers.
Middle east peace, again never going to happen. Those people have hated each other for thousands of years and no amount of money will ever solve that.
Don’t worry, once the chinese start building a colony in the moon and hopefully on top of Tom Cruise’s patch of land… Nasa will get the funding AND be set in the right direction.
The government is not good at feeding the people. Just look at the welfare system. If you want your money to reach the needy, donate to your favorite church and have them disperse the money.
What exactly would the money buy that would cause peace in the middle east? More bombs? Make the rich richer?
America’s space program is going to be in the hands of commercial enterprises. The American people seem to not want their tax dollars going towards space development. Our space program has been relying on the Russian space program for the past year or two and nobody seems to care if that is a good thing or not.
Hopefyully China’s and Russia’s space programs can keep the dream alive until America’s commercial programs kick in.
I think NASA should invest more into robotic missions. The images and data sent back fuel people’s curiousity.
The problems with NASA,
Come from NOT haveing money to do Things THEY WANT.
they have to explin everything to the Gov, and get an OK, just to launch.
The Gov wants everything to be military thats up there.
Only the Big corps with Gov funding have even placed Satilites up there.
Sence other countries DONT need NASA anymore, they are finding CHEAPER means to get there now. between Japan, and russia, sending anything you wish and can PAY for, we may have a chance.
Only problem i see is CORPS charging 10 times the going cost for PARTS. when Russia, in all its chaos can send something up, for $100 million, it costs us 1 Billion just to launch.
The Government looks like is not the “special sponsor” of NASA anymore. The Government have to approve all of NASA’s experiments and the approval came from a man who doesn’t know what’s all about that experiment. I don’t think that he can judge what’s a good experiment.
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