LIVE: Congressional Hearings into Obama's NASA Budget FY2011 - Feb 24-25 Part 2

[kraisee]

This plan is already having far greater political problems just one month after announcement, than the Steidle/O'Keefe Spirals plan ever experienced.   And Congress overturned that plan 100%.

Ross.

[kraisee]

So is there an afternoon session as well?

Ross.

[Cog_in_the_machine]

No. That was it. No more sessions.

[psloss]

This plan is already having far greater political problems just one month after announcement, than the Steidle/O'Keefe Spirals plan ever experienced.   And Congress overturned that plan 100%.

There's still a long ways to go and we still haven't seen how the representatives outside of the directly affected areas will vote.  Or whether the President might do more than threaten to veto a different plan.  (The threat is probably a given, but whether he would follow through remains to be seen.)

[zerm]

Is there anyone out there at this moment that thinks this budget for NASA is going to stand as-is?

Constellation sound as if it likely to re-instated into the budget is some form. These Congress members are far more angry than even I expected them to be- and I expected them to be pretty angry.

Interesting the talk of stimulis in small portions beging able to bring Constellation funding up to the levels Augustine stated were needed.

[HammerD]

Is there an archive of the session today somewhere? I missed most of it.

[kraisee]

Philip,
True, but Congress clearly won't ratify the plan as it stands -- it won't even get out of the relevant committees.

So if no agreement can be reached, that would mean a CR would be in effect for 2011.    That means POR continues by default.

So Obama loses if it goes down that path.

A veto won't serve to do anything but pi** off a pile of Congress members at a time he's desperately searching for Health Care votes.   Not gonna happen.

Ross.

[marsavian]

Will the other Congress members go against their Authorization and Appropriation Committee deliberations though ?  Wouldn't it then be a question of sticking by Congress bodies rather than voting along party lines ? Only one voice spoke up in favor of this policy, it looks doomed in its present form. Seems to me the only real question to be decided by these committees is whether we get any Shuttle extension to go along with our shiny new SD-HLV .

[gladiator1332]

I expect that Cx will be "reinstated" in the form of some type of Shuttle Derived HLV. The only thing that worries me here is the misinformation that Augustine fully supported program of record. Or the belief that Cx was going perfectly as planned and we just got cold feet.
Anyone who followed the Augustine Commission for five minutes knows that the POR was not very popular during that hearing.

[kraisee]

Before this round of hearings I was told one thing:

Obama has played his first round with a strong hand.   Expect Congress to play an equally strong hand their way.   It is all mostly posturing at this stage.   A sensible compromise will need to be found which enables the bulk of both plans to occur simultaneously.

I think this is true.

Ross.

[psloss]

Is there anyone out there at this moment that thinks this budget for NASA is going to stand as-is?

In my opinion, depends on whether the President is willing to use his veto power.

Interesting the talk of stimulis in small portions beging able to bring Constellation funding up to the levels Augustine stated were needed.

Kind of.  These committees and their members (with exceptions like Representative Rohrabacher) have generally bemoaned the lack of funding within several parts of NASA -- not just HSF issues (RTF, Katrina costs, CxP), but things like the science and aeronautics cuts.

If it were up to these committees, NASA would have got the money that Griffin asked for.  The fact that many of these initiatives end up being unfunded or underfunded mandates is why I think there's at least another proverbial shoe to drop inside Congress even before they propose substituting their own plan.

[Chris Bergin]

Catching up, great work guys. I'm "happy" Bolden is citing cost and not "safety" as the issue for shuttle extension. That seperates him from Griffin.

[marsavian]

Is there an archive of the session today somewhere? I missed most of it.

It will be archived to the webcast link on this page soon.

http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?NewsID=2746

[HammerD]

Is there an archive of the session today somewhere? I missed most of it.

It will be archived to the webcast link on this page soon.

http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?NewsID=2746

Ok thanks :-)  Get on it!! LOL

[Bill White]

Right now Bolden is basically rehashing what he said yesterday about fuel depots, flagship projects, robotic precursors etc.


Question time

Gordon: Will there be other markets for commercial crew aside from NASA?

Bolden: We believe so because the private companies have done research in this are and claim there is.

Gordon says the answer is unsatisfactory.

Bart Gordon understands the definition of monopsony, it would seem. 

[kraisee]

Catching up, great work guys. I'm "happy" Bolden is citing cost and not "safety" as the issue for shuttle extension. That seperates him from Griffin.

I was told last night, that a industry consortium including all the major industry players, has this week informed NASA that they could take over Shuttle operations (including five flights per year) as a commercial operation for a grand-sum total of $1.8bn per year.

Asuming that is correct, as an interim solution to continue Shuttle until its replacement is actually ready, that sounds like a reasonably affordable option to me.

Ross.

[Cog_in_the_machine]

Bart Gordon understands the definition of monopsony, it would seem. 

Don't other governments and space tourists count as customers in the market?

[psloss]

Catching up, great work guys. I'm "happy" Bolden is citing cost and not "safety" as the issue for shuttle extension. That seperates him from Griffin.

He noted Admiral Dyer and the ASAP during the hearing today in response to a question -- an oblique reference, but I'm not sure his opinion on Shuttle safety has changed.

[Yegor]

I think that we got a confirmation yesterday of what Ross Tierney (kraisee) and some other people were telling us - Obama administration wants to cut NASA budget.

The super strong Congress reaction is a prove. Particularly Nelson talked a lot about that there were now declaration from the President of the new Vision. And what it means that there is an open highway to cut NASA budget next year. Now we all hear it not just from Ross but from Congressmen!

All you "Commercial"+R&D guys please remove you pink glasses!!! There will be no R&D - no Automatic rendezvous, no Propellant Depots, no VASIMR, no nothing. I even doubt that they will fund $6 billions "Commercial" spacecrafts fully.

[psloss]

"Senator’s attack on NASA deputy chief Lori Garver backfires"

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2010/02/senators-attack-on-nasa-deputy-chief-lori-garver-backfires.html

(Please remove if duplicate.)