Human Spaceflight for Sale?

While the Obama administration seeks to end government-funded human spaceflight through a budget proposal that would terminate NASA’s Constellation Program, critics question the wisdom - and safety - of turning over human space exploration to the private sector, Julianne Geiger writes for ISN Security Watch.

NASA’s Constellation Program (CxP) faces termination in the wake of the 2011 budget proposal, despite a proposed increase to the overall NASA budget. According to some, scrapping CxP means scrapping any hope that the US will again send astronauts to the moon, or even beyond low Earth orbit.

The budget proposal summary states that CxP “was over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation due to a failure to invest in critical new technologies.”

The cuts will not only end NASA’s program for putting astronauts on the moon by 2020, but external pageall space exploration projects, such as the development of a new rocket called Ares I, the next generation of spacesuits, a lunar lander and a new rocket that would take humans beyond Earth’s orbit.

President Barack Obama made the cuts after an independent review from the Augustine Panel considered CxP unfavorable.

Missing from the Panel’s findings was a recommendation as to the best direction for the future of NASA. According to Obama, the external page2011 budget represents a shift toward science and away from space exploration, and indeed includes an increase in funds to promote commercial space exploration.

The budget cuts would come after $9 billion has already been spent on CxP, which was responsible for creating thousands of jobs in the US. Still external pagemore will be owed after cancelling contractors who were working on the project.

Death of space program?

The cuts have received mixed reactions, with some saying it signifies the death of the space program.

In a 1 February external pagepress conference, NASA administrator and former shuttle astronaut Charlie Bolden announced that Obama had laid out a new plan under the proposal to “invest in critical and transformative technologies.

“These will enable our path beyond low Earth orbit through development of new launch and space transportation technologies, nimble construction capabilities on orbit, and new operations capabilities. Imagine trips to Mars that take weeks instead of nearly a year; people fanning out across the inner solar system, exploring the Moon, asteroids and Mars nearly simultaneously in a steady stream of ‘firsts;’ and imagine all of this being done collaboratively with nations around the world. That is what the President’s plan for NASA will enable, once we develop the new capabilities to make it a reality.”

Bolden’s optimism is echoed within NASA as the workforce is constantly reminded of the agency’s new direction by touting words such as ‘bold,’ ‘innovative’ and ‘game-changing,’ according to one CxP engineer, who spoke to ISN Security Watch on condition of anonymity.

The jargon, however, has done little to spin the minds of the workforce, who feel the cuts signify the end of America’s human space flight capability for good.

Critics of the proposal feel this leaves the US out of the space race, having to rely on Russia or China to get its astronauts to its own space station, both now and in the future. Some are also skeptical of the new plan to pass off the launching of astronauts to the private sector, stating that it is too expensive and will require a safety tolerance that cannot be maintained outside NASA.

Bolden and John Holdren, Obama’s science and technology advisor and director of the White House Science and Technology Policy, have responded to such critics in a letter to the external pageWashington Post, stating that the new direction, which scraps the program that would send US astronauts to the moon in favor of sending them to Mars,  “is right for the agency, for the times and for continuing U.S. leadership in space,” and that “the Bush plan, not the Obama plan, would have left the United States a loser in space.”

Despite the administration’s bright outlook, ISN Security Watch’s NASA source said, “It is very difficult to comment on the new direction at NASA, because there isn't one. We've been told Constellation is dead. We've been told to wrap it up, but we have nothing to replace it with. There is no plan. Our leaders are still struggling to figure out what we are going to do.”

The presence of ‘spin’ in internal communications, according to the ASAP report, had diminished in recent years. Employees may feel otherwise. NASA employees anticipated cuts prior to the 1 February announcement. But according to sources inside NASA, no one expected an end to the entire Constellation Program, the only viable method of shuttling its astronauts to the space station.

Employees found out about the end of the program along with the rest of the world on 1 February. The reaction was one of shock and disappointment.

ISN Security Watch’s NASA source agrees with the notion that the public has not been completely apprised of the situation. “This really hasn't gotten the press it deserves: Once the shuttle retires, we are out of the human spaceflight business without a plan or program to get back in.”

Contractors feeling the pinch

NASA contractors are also being affected. Boeing recently received $18 million in seed money to develop external pagespace crew transportation systems, but the contracts fall drastically short from the awards it got in the past.

The company won an external page$800 million contract in 2007 to develop the avionics for the Ares I rocket, which the new budget puts in jeopardy along with the 400 jobs it created.

Lockheed Martin, a global security company employing 140,000 people worldwide, had a contract with NASA to work on the Orion Project, also on track to be cancelled under Obama’s 2011 proposal. In a external page1 February press release, the company expressed they were “keenly disappointed in the administration’s budget proposal,” stating “Orion’s maturity is evident in its readiness for a test flight in a matter of weeks.

“In fact, Orion can be ready for crewed flights to low Earth orbit and other exploration missions as early as 2013, thus narrowing the gap in U.S. human space flight capability when the shuttle is retired later this year.”

Lockheed Martin closed the statement to the press stating they were “committed to working with Congress, the Administration and NASA to ensure a safe, viable and robust space exploration program that does not cede U.S. leadership in space.”

Touring space

Space tourism today is hardly a booming business. The first human spaceflight in a privately operated and developed spacecraft took place in June 2004 with SpaceShip One.

Virgin Galactic is working on SpaceShipTwo, its own tourist-geared spaceship. In 2004, the company announced that it would send the craft into space with touristsin two or three years. Six years later, SpaceShipTwo has been unveiled and tickets are on sale for $200,000, but its first flight has yet to come to fruition.

There are many companies that offer launch services to the private and government sectors, but the reality is that safety is an issue, and the demand for private space tourism is distinctly lacking at current prices. Without the demand, competition is scarce, as is the motive for private companies sinking millions of dollars into pursuing new technology.

Critics are mainly concerned with the safety of commercializing the space industry. The external pageASAP report put the safety of commercially built space vehicles as a top concern. "No manufacturer of commercial orbital transportation services is currently qualified for human-rating requirements, despite some claims and beliefs to the contrary.”

The report also stated it would be “unwise and probably not cost-effective” to abandon Aires I, which shuttles astronauts to the International Space Station, in favor of an “unproven alternative without demonstrated capability.” Aires I is part of CxP due to be cut by the new proposal.

ISN Security Watch’s source inside NASA agrees. “The future of American spaceflight is left in the hands of private business who are banking on an explosion in some future space tourism industry. If that does not materialize, we may never explore space again. It's possible that during our lifetimes, we may see Chinese astronauts planting a flag on the moon […] and we ourselves unable even to reach low-Earth orbits.”

CxP has done well with the successful launch of Ares I rocket in October, a new crew launch vehicle that would launch Orion, the spacecraft that was destined to take over after the current shuttle retires.  

The proposed budget still has to be approved by Congress, which has ardent CxP supporters. In a 1 February external pagestatement, Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, NASA's original home state, said “Constellation is the only path forward that maintains America’s leadership in space. […]Congress cannot and will not sit back and watch the reckless abandonment of sound principles, a proven track record, a steady path to success, and the destruction of our human space flight program."

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