Florida Sen. Bill Nelson said today he's confident that a senate committee will pass a bi-partisan NASA authorization bill next Thursday that offers compromises to President Obama's controversial proposals, but preservers key priorities.
The bill, which would match the president's $19 billion request, would request "at least" one additional shuttle mission, to be flown next summer.
And it would accelerate development of a shuttle-derived heavy-lift vehicle that could serve as a government back-up if commercial launchers failed to offer crew taxi services in a safe and timely manner.
The bill would also continue to develop a fully capable Orion spacecraft for deep space exploration, not the scaled back version the administration has said would serve as an International Space Station lifeboat. That station's life would be extended by at least five years, to 2020.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will meet Thursday to consider the authorization bill.
"We've got quite a few senators that are coming together, senators that have been very critical of the president's proposals," Nelson told reporters in his Orlando office. "I think that by next Thursday we'll be able to join all together."
The bill would need to be approved by appropriators and matched with a House bill before being signed into law, all possibly in time to be fit into a "continuing resolution" spending plan if a federal isn't passed by Oct. 1, the start of the 2011 fiscal year.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
28 comments:
I'd be very curious to find out more about this "at least" one more shuttle mission statement. Could there be more shuttle missions past an Atlantis STS-135 next year? Perhaps the folks who want to terminate the shuttle and the ones who want it to go on will both get what they want...an extention, aka delay in retirement.
The development of the shuttle-derived heavy-lift vehicle and full-scale Orion capsule is promising as well. This sounds like a true compromise. Heck...are they actually doing their job up there?
Nelson is a SOCIALIST, tax payers shouldn't have to pay for mortgages on the big houses that were bought by Shuttle Workers.
This is just more SOCIALISM.
Join the Conservative Republican Tea Party and put a halt to wasteful govt spending like the Space Program!
They have been slowly getting rid of the un-neaded dead weight out there at the cape. When they are done, changes might occur.
Just need to get rid of the excess managers, sitting around with nothing to do first. Then ramp up.
They are leaving out the heavy-lift out of earth orbit vehicle. What use is the Orion w/o a rocket. Pelosi hates it as does Obama because it has Bush's signature. Continue development until a proven private alternative shows up.
They just made the last Shuttle tank and had a party probably lots lost their jobs so is that tank a spare made for no reason other then a museum and do we not have anymore for an additional mission? ? Since we have already jettisoned many of the suppliers is it just a cruel joke .
Please stop this NASA spending. We can't have billions being spent on Government WPA jobs for space and Tax breaks for the wealthy 1%. It dose not make sense. Stop the government give away.
So where is the money for this next mission coming from - will they authorize money? Or will some other programs be gutted to pay for it? Will safety be compromised - or more money pulled from residual science?
With no additional external fuel tanks there cannot be more than one addition flight. Two years lead time on an external tank.
Dates, where are the dates for these comprimises? In a timely matter? What? 1 year, 5 years, 20 years?
With no hard dates this is all pie-in-the-sky "look, I'm doing something for you folks" nonsense.
In the end people will accept that the Space Coast will be the Ghost of the Space Coast and get on with their lives. Economic depression will become the norm and the politicians can move on to other greener fields.
8 to 9 percent unemployment will become acceptable and a lower standard of living will become the average. People are too complacent, just look at how long it took our local media and politicians to actually pretend to give a hoot about the shut down.
Hopefully I'll get some job offeres for applications I have put out there (in other states unfortunately)....this area (central and north Brevard) are going to be awful in a year or so (more so than they have been the last couple). Frightening.
Sounds great, but there MUST be some creative accounting somewhere. How can you add a shuttle mission, accelerate development of shuttle derived heavy lift rocket, AND keep Orion moving forward with the same budget as no extra shuttle mission, no Orion, and delayed heavy lift rocket. What gives?
BTW, I always liked that shuttle derived heavy lift rocket vs. the Ares V proposal. Just seemed to make more sense and keep exiting assets working.
At this point, even if Nay-Say does get funding for a SDLV, it' will probably be something useless like side-mount.
RIP, NASA. Last one to leave please turn out the lights.
For all of you whiners out ther "concerned" about gov't spending: I will support the cutoff of aid to NASA when we cut out unneeded welfare spending on democrat excesses.
Are you with me or do you only want to punish productive workers?
If I were to tell someone with absolute certainty that 6 years from today, your car was going to spontaneously erupt into flames...I would hope that a given person would be smart enough to make other driving arrangements before that date. I would also think that even a person with below average intelligence would be smart enough not to park the car in the garage and burn down their whole house....
Stated only to show why I have no sympathy for the USA employees that are about to be laid off. They have known for 6 years that this is coming.....
F9 proved that the big overpaid unionized workforce is unnecessary....400 people...drawing board to Earth orbit in 5 years compared to 10-20,000 people on shuttle-8,000+ with just one of the dozens of contractors having constant problems with 20 year old 'proven' hardware...NTM things like the drugs in secure areas (THAT NOBODY WAS HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR!) and other general ineptitude.
Beep Beep Last stop on the gravy train....Everybody off.
Attn 243pm: ARES IS SHUTTLE DERIVED!
It shouldn't surprise the thinkers among you that when the successor to shuttle was chosen...the replacements were built from he most PROFITABLE parts of the shuttle system for the contractors and their shareholders. The Boosters and Tank....Yes thats right sports fans...we're replacing the shuttle system because of 2 lost crews...but we are keeping the 2 parts of the system that failed and killed those crews...(who for those who were educated in our public schools or just weren't paying attention)TANK that shed the foam that doomed Columbia and the BOOSTERS that led to the Challenger's destruction....
ALL FOR PROFIT OF LOCKHEED MARTIN AND ATK!!!!!!!
They really need to leave the shuttle program alone and leave it intact. we will be paying more money to the russians than the shuttle program to ferry astronauts to the station. that is something we do not need right now.
the space program is a US icon and should be left alone and in the USA
Anonymous comment above claiming the TEA Party is against the Space Program is a cleverly concealed false flag try to discredit the TEA Party .We understand the contributions and need for the Space Program .Not like Harry Nancy and Barry,who despise it.
"I always liked that shuttle derived heavy lift rocket vs. the Ares V proposal. Just seemed to make more sense and keep exiting assets working."
I totally agree.
I'm a anit-government hard core conservative, and I really want an STS-135 mission to happen. You see some of you guys are saying gut the space program? Why the heck would you do that? If it wasn't for the space program, you wouldn't even have that computer your on right now. If you ever need a GPS, thank the Saturn V, when you use Velcro, thank NASA. When you are able to watch TV, thank the rockets that take the satellites up which are NASA (Delta II, IV, Atlas V, ect) go NASA, it's the only government agency we have left that truculently represents the American people's lust and belief for exploration.
It's kind of like having a manned space flight program but not really.
In other news, o bama walks on water (again)
The haters on this forum will get your wish but not like you think. Sure, people will get laid off and they will move on. No big deal. They are educated and have skills.
In the mean time, the people wishing for the layoffs will watch their homes devalue and their favorite businesses fold.
Careful what you wish for...
A quote from CessnaDriver:
"ObamaSpace is fading and has been a failed plan from the get go.
Poorly conceived, not socialized with congress, poorly introduced, nebulous goals and uninspirational. No attempt at all to build any kind of reasonable consensus with congress or the space community.
Few champions for it other then mostly administration people.
Congress has clearly had enough. Obama has burned bridges with congress.
ObamaSpace IS *dying* the death it deserves."
I stopped trusting Senator Nelson when he decided to not fight for the Constelation program. He made his choice, his party over the Space coast workers. Maybe he should feel the pain of a lay-off.
What I love is the space center haters not recognizing that no matter what your personal feelings towards people you do not know is, the 8000 laid off people are going to lead to upwards of 25000 non KSC people. Lets assume that those 25000 people have 2 kids and are married. That's 75000 people that will be affected by this lay off. Do you feel the same for all of them? Do you believe that everyone had or has the ability to just plan out their futures even 6 years in advance and it will work like clock work. Should they walk away from their mortgages now that the housing market is dead? Who will pick up that tab? Keep in mind, unemployment is still 9.5% (or higher, depending on where you get your info), that's nationwide. Locally it is more like 12%....so it is just not those fools at the space center, it is almost 1 in 5 people in this county that will be directly impacted by this move. Hate the space program and those that work there, but in the long run EVERYONE is going to feel this and it is not going to be pleasant. Personally I hate to see it end. The space coast is dead after KSC shuts down and it will be decades, if ever, before it will return to what it was. So many armchair quarterbacks that seem to completely underestimate the impact this is going to have on this area.
Anon 12:55 - Antagonist you're not very original. Conservative Republicans dislike wasteful spending like unending entitlements that do nothing to encourage those that are dependent on them improving themselves. NASA is one of the only government agencies that actually produces something, either directly or indirectly through contractors working on their projects.
It is not a 'social welfare program' and do not try and pretend you are actually concerned about government spending...if you had your way you would allow this administration to print an infinite amount of money, foolishly believing it would have no affect on our economy. Conservatives believe in smaller government and better management of taxpayers dollars....I for one support it 110% (though not with Bolden in charge). I'd rather see it going there than ACORN (or organizations such as it).
The worst part of the situation is that no civil servant jobs are going to be lost, only contractor jobs. Sorry, but if you want to talk about useless people there are plenty of civil servants who need to go. Many of them are worse than dead weight -- they do nothing but make it impossible for anybody to get any work done.
I just hate to see a lot of really talented people lose their jobs while a metric ton of idiocy stays. And what does that mean for the future of KSC? It means that the only people who are left to determine what the future architecture is going to be are the very ones who are a big part of the current problem.
As they say; Everything happens for a reason.
RIP, NASA. Last one to leave please turn out the lights.
It is truly a laugh that GWB set the date to end the Shuttle program and six years passed with not a beep until the reality set in and the politicians at last spoke up and blamed the current administration for not continuing the wasteful and pointless WPA project promoted by GWB in 25 words or less as if he was JFK. What were lacking were a need and a competitor. GWB and friends spent eight years as a demonstrated enemy of science and intellect and good government relying instead on the market place to steer a straight and productive national course straight into the ditch and now to pretend the eight years of GWB never existed and to pine for the ‘shining light on the hill” and other republican pipe dreams. And now the do nothing party of NO does not want to extend unemployment benefits but it does want to extend the Shuttle and Constellation programs to save votes and cash flow for preferred companies. And come November the political pendulum will swing back to the right and history will be relived.
The added mission will use the tank that is still being built for the LON of Endeavour. I know they have a big PR event about the last tank, but it wasn't the last tank. From the article it looks like the money for STS-135 will come from the requested budget, so something will have to be cut elsewhere in the budget request.
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