With the President's signature now on the NASA Authorization act, the struggle can begin in earnest regarding NASA FY11 Appropriations. The Oct 8 letter signed by Gordon, Hall, Giffords and Olson already seems to have thrown down the gauntlet, with its "NASA should determine the best approach" language and characterization of the Act as "very prescriptive" of a wrong-sized vehicle.To keep their horse in the race they will want:* continuation of 5 segment SRM development* full funding for 5.5 m upper stage tanks, avionics and J-2X* no short cuts in the contract award process for the SLS core.And delay is totally on their side, right?
This would figure at being done quietly on a day when there were a lot of other presidential things for the media to talk about. This bill is a pretty hefty rebuke of the administration's proposal and it is best signed and then have the president get otta town to a high profile event where he can speak in front of a very friendly crowd much more open to media and friendly coverage. Politically that works for the administration.
Quote from: sdsds on 10/11/2010 07:26 pmWith the President's signature now on the NASA Authorization act, the struggle can begin in earnest regarding NASA FY11 Appropriations. The Oct 8 letter signed by Gordon, Hall, Giffords and Olson already seems to have thrown down the gauntlet, with its "NASA should determine the best approach" language and characterization of the Act as "very prescriptive" of a wrong-sized vehicle.To keep their horse in the race they will want:* continuation of 5 segment SRM development* full funding for 5.5 m upper stage tanks, avionics and J-2X* no short cuts in the contract award process for the SLS core.And delay is totally on their side, right?It's more complicated than that; there are other challenges. The election result and trends will play a big role in how the lame-duck session goes.
when can we expect the appropriations process to begin?
Quote from: zerm on 10/11/2010 06:52 pmThis would figure at being done quietly on a day when there were a lot of other presidential things for the media to talk about. This bill is a pretty hefty rebuke of the administration's proposal and it is best signed and then have the president get otta town to a high profile event where he can speak in front of a very friendly crowd much more open to media and friendly coverage. Politically that works for the administration. How is it a rebuke? There is more of the FY2011 proposal than not in the bill. Also CxP is gone. The current bill is FY2011 plus an HLV five years earlier.Also, FY2011 is not dead nor is an HLV a give. There still is the appropriations bill