The post that you are responding too is also from last July. But no activity has happenned on the NASA Authorization bill since that time (which is why nobody posted on this topic since that time).
I was quite surprised, then, that House members who've made clear that SLS is their top priority came out against the heist, which seems to be the only viable, possibly affordable mission for SLS that anybody's been able to come up with in the nearly three years it's been in the works. So, I'm wondering why they're opposed to the heist.
According to a vitriolic post on another site, on page 162 of the Appropriations Act $171 million of the $696 million Commercial Crew funds are to be withheld until NASA Administrator Bolden releases a cost-benefit analysis of commercial crew flights to ISS vs. paying for Soyuz seats. So, until that study is done, only $525 million is available. Chris, can you confirm this? Has the panel been organized?
