Here We Go Again: Do More With Less

Senate compromise may be setting up NASA for another failure, Orlando Sentinel
“The plan orders NASA to build a heavy-lift rocket and capsule capable of reaching the International Space Station by 2016. But it budgets less money for the new spacecraft – roughly $11 billion over three years, with $3 billion next year — than what the troubled Constellation program would have received. That – plus the short deadline — has set off alarms. Days before the compromise was announced, NASA chief Charlie Bolden and Deputy Lori Garver told its two champions — U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Florida and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas — that NASA could not finish the proposed new rocket before 2020, according to three sources present at the meetings. When asked about the conversation, Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin said the NASA officials were responding to lower dollar figures than what Congress ultimately approved. NASA spokesman Michael Cabbage said it “would not be appropriate to discuss private conversations between NASA and members of Congress.”