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

[kraisee]

I hope she does not resign because wouldn't that make her effort less powerful?

I don't think she's going to leave the Senate, now that she lost the Governor primary.

Ross.

[yg1968]

An SD-HLV is getting the majority of the backing right now, along with continued Orion funding.

Who will persuade NASA to go along with a compromise?

If this gets dragged out for another year and we see continuing resolutions for funding, there could be a fait accompli making it impossible to extend Orbiter, or go with SD-HLV.

The Shuttle would only be extended if there is aditionnal funding. I wouldn't bet on additionnal funding.

[Pheogh]

An SD-HLV is getting the majority of the backing right now, along with continued Orion funding.

Who will persuade NASA to go along with a compromise?

If this gets dragged out for another year and we see continuing resolutions for funding, there could be a fait accompli making it impossible to extend Orbiter, or go with SD-HLV.

The Shuttle would only be extended if there is aditionnal funding. I wouldn't bet on additionnal funding.

Ross,

Is this true, I thought we had budgets that included shuttle extension under this 19B allocation.

[psloss]

The Shuttle would only be extended if there is aditionnal funding. I wouldn't bet on additionnal funding.

At this stage, I'd agree on the additional funding.  But Shuttle would very likely end without being authorized, too.  An extension likely needs both, but this is definitely the easier part and we're still a ways out from any kind of vote.  Will still be interested in any public reaction from the Administration to this after it's introduced.

Is this true, I thought we had budgets that included shuttle extension under this 19B allocation.

The SOMD top line drops significantly from FY 2010 to FY 2011.  That's the hole where Shuttle Operations used to be.

[TexasRED]

Ben,
In truth the players all know that the 1.5-launch architecture is DoA.   Only Sen. Shelby and Rep. Giffords are still pushing what I would term as "POR unchanged" at this time,

Glad to hear that these are the only two pushing for "Pure PoR".  They will make fools of themselves doing that IMO. 

An SD-HLV is getting the majority of the backing right now, along with continued Orion funding.

This would make my day.   

Still worried there won't be dollars for this, but yeah.

[kraisee]

An SD-HLV is getting the majority of the backing right now, along with continued Orion funding.

Who will persuade NASA to go along with a compromise?

If this gets dragged out for another year and we see continuing resolutions for funding, there could be a fait accompli making it impossible to extend Orbiter, or go with SD-HLV.

The Shuttle would only be extended if there is aditionnal funding. I wouldn't bet on additionnal funding.

Ross,

Is this true, I thought we had budgets that included shuttle extension under this 19B allocation.

No, this bill still assumes the same $19bn budget level.

The bill takes the stance that the R&D/Game Change work is not a priority, so the bill doesn't fund any of that.

Instead, Congress wants Shuttle Extension, SD-HLV and Orion.   It also keeps Ares-I as a test program -- although that would probably be merged into HLV in the end.

Remember this is a deliberately extreme position for Congress to take as their starting negotiating position, caused by the extreme position taken by the President.

You can safely bet that the endgame will see both sides compromise on a solution somewhere between these two extremes.

Ross.

[robertross]

An SD-HLV is getting the majority of the backing right now, along with continued Orion funding.

Who will persuade NASA to go along with a compromise?

If this gets dragged out for another year and we see continuing resolutions for funding, there could be a fait accompli making it impossible to extend Orbiter, or go with SD-HLV.

The Shuttle would only be extended if there is aditionnal funding. I wouldn't bet on additionnal funding.

Part of this whole funding issue is national prestige.
-Continued domestic crewed access to space
-Minimized reliance on foreign countries (as perception)
-Running a space transportation system
-Looking into the future and developing the architecture for the next great goal (Mars) to ensure American spremacy in space

Now they may not have been doing very well implementing this in the past, but congress knows that these things come at a cost.

I suspect they will fund shuttle extension. Something will give in the short term (full or partial), but they will back this to ensure they don't lose a grip on what there is left.

[kraisee]

Glad to hear that these are the only two pushing for "Pure PoR".  They will make fools of themselves doing that IMO.

Actually its pretty clever politics.   By holding out like this, they get a lot of negotiating power.   They are waiting for concessions to be offered in order to get them to come aboard the final solution.   That approach will likely benefit both of their districts.

Ross.

[yg1968]

An SD-HLV is getting the majority of the backing right now, along with continued Orion funding.

Who will persuade NASA to go along with a compromise?

If this gets dragged out for another year and we see continuing resolutions for funding, there could be a fait accompli making it impossible to extend Orbiter, or go with SD-HLV.

The Shuttle would only be extended if there is aditionnal funding. I wouldn't bet on additionnal funding.

Ross,

Is this true, I thought we had budgets that included shuttle extension under this 19B allocation.

No, this bill still assumes the same $19bn budget level.

The bill takes the stance that the R&D/Game Change work is not a priority, so the bill doesn't fund any of that.

Instead, Congress wants Shuttle Extension, SD-HLV and Orion.   It also keeps Ares-I as a test program -- although that would probably be merged into HLV in the end.

Remember this is a deliberately extreme position for Congress to take as their starting negotiating position, caused by the extreme position taken by the President.

You can safely bet that the endgame will see both sides compromise on a solution somewhere between these two extremes.

Ross.

Ross, the bill is on L2.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=20715.msg555430#msg555430

Every Shuttle extension effort has assumed additionnal money. See this article from today:
http://flametrench.flatoday.net/2010/03/kosmas-urges-congress-to-extend-shuttle.html

The congresswoman whose district includes NASA's Kennedy Space Center today urged the the U.S. House budget committee to add $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2011 to keep the nation's shuttle fleet flying in support of President Obama's plan to extend International Space Station operations through 2020.

[yg1968]

Here is the Press Release by Senator Hutchinson:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=30327

[TexasRED]

Glad to hear that these are the only two pushing for "Pure PoR".  They will make fools of themselves doing that IMO.

Actually its pretty clever politics.   By holding out like this, they get a lot of negotiating power.   They are waiting for concessions to be offered in order to get them to come aboard the final solution.   That approach will likely benefit both of their districts.

Ross.

I see. Thanks for the details. I still think they will look foolish to some by using this tactic though.

Instead, Congress wants Shuttle Extension, SD-HLV and Orion.   It also keeps Ares-I as a test program -- although that would probably be merged into HLV in the end.

Remember this is a deliberately extreme position for Congress to take as their starting negotiating position, caused by the extreme position taken by the President.

You can safely bet that the endgame will see both sides compromise on a solution somewhere between these two extremes.

Ross.

. 

So if Congress' version of an extreme is Shuttle extension, SD-HLV and Orion, then I wonder what kind of middle ground are we really looking at here? You said earlier that they are pushing for SD-HLV and Orion? Is this the reasonable compromise?

[Chris Bergin]

Ok, so it was press releases and such.

I'm going to close this thread when I start the new one, which will be headed by an article (long) which I've nearly finished, quoting from the 37 page pdf (Senate Bill "Human Space Flight Capability Assurance and Enhancement Act of 2010") - and I'll publish the pdf with the opening post, so you can all read it, as I'll never be able to cover it all in an article.

Done, head here:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=20720.0