Bolden: Fund Commercial Crew to end Reliance on the Russians
NASA FY 2015 Budget – Commercial Crew is Investing in America, SpaceRef Business
“Early in his opening statement during the NASA teleconference on NASA’s FY 2015 budget request, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden made it clear that reliance on the Russians for access to the International Space Station is choice Congress must choose to end.
Bolden said “budgets are about making choices, and let me clear about one thing, the choice here is between fully funding the request to bring space launches back to the U.S. or continuing millions in subsidies to the Russians, it’s that simple. The Obama administration chooses investing in America. We believe Congress will choose this course as well.”
On a day where tensions in Ukraine’s Crimea only slighted abated, hammering on Congress about the choices they’ve made with respect to funding Commercial Crew budgeting in past years seemed appropriate. But was anybody listening?”
The issue here is that to “fully fund” Commercial Crew NASA will require a plus up. I don’t see an increase in NASA’s future, a directive externally to fund Commercial Crew means something else has to give and right now, without some serious look at the size of the Agency, that ain’t happening.
didn’t take but a day for the State Dept to find out of thin air a $1B to pledge to Ukraine. $70M a seat start to outpace the savings in commercial crew cuts congress wants. they need to be taught a lesson in math.
Good points.
Bob Clark
The Russian invasion and Ukrainian crisis abated slightly. This is now a fast paced World where one big story swiftly thrusts aside another in just a day. What we need to keep in mind is that the World will have to contend with Russia under an old fashion dictatorship for years and decades longer. Putin at 61 could remain in control 30 more years. He presently has the upper hand. His old world – 19th century attitudes, are a risk to the World. Putin calling Ukrainians fascists, anti-semitic and neo-Nazis sounds much like the crazy rhetoric that comes from North Korea. The problem is Russia can cause much more grief for the World than North Korea. It is tragic for the Russian people, a good people as they are, that within the last 100 years, they have only seen their society transition from despotic Czars, to Communist dictatorships to now a dictator that operates under a corrupted system with failed human rights and electoral process. I recently saw a one-man play on the life of Buckminster Fuller. He is quoted as saying that “war is now obsolete”. Putin does not believe that is true, however, if the US and Europe, the World, works swiftly and wisely, there are other pressures to apply on the Russian regime. Russia does not have the isolation that the Soviet Union did and World communications do not allow them to hide and deceive behind an iron curtain as before. The “West” needs to really take advantage of these leverages but also reduce reliance on Russia until Putin is gone and a healthy form of government arises in Russia. This needs to include eliminating the dependence on Soyuz launches a lot sooner now.
You evidence a certain lack of knowledge about the situation in Ukraine, despite the volume of words you offer.
The reality is that right-wing (yes, fascist) nationalists in Ukraine were the source of much of the most blatant violence that we saw in the past few weeks. Ukraine does, in fact, have a history of anti-Russian nationalism which was famously expressed in collaboration with the Nazis in order to drive out Russian, Poles, and Jews.
Was this fact overplayed for domestic political effect by Putin? Undoubtably. Appeals against fascism still have much power in the Russian heartland, Putin’s base.
These two countries, Ukraine and Russia, are indeed tightly intertwined. If we think we can throw some money at anti-Russian demonstrators and score points off of Putin (and, by association, Russia), then we fundamentally misunderstand the history and current reality of the situation.
A middle-ground solution can be found here, but the path to it does not lie along the course of slapping Russia and Putin around to show all and sundry how evil they are and what angelic democrats we are. That is a fool’s errand.
Good points but transition from protests to violence was a muddy situation. I’m sure the ultra right were more ready to start and fight but there is evidence that the Yanukovych provoked them all and patience of all the protesters in those conditions wore out. The interim government does need to agree to include pro-Russians in governing the country up to the May elections. Its critical to avert a loss of the eastern region whether by election or Russian invasion. Those nationalists do not represent the Ukrainians, nor are they anti-Semitic and since when is Putin concerned about Jews or anyone except his cronies.
A more enlightened leader might have justified a continued alliance with Russia, but Yanukovich jailed political opponents, had snipers shoot unarmed demonstrators, and robbed the country blind.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…
Good for Bolden. He needs to insist that congress fund commercial space properly. This is an opportunity that can`t be missed. Everyone should after these congressmen TO FUND COMMERCIAL SPACE PROPERLY!
Exactly. At this point this is obvious to everyone. Let’s hope FINALLY it will become obvious to Congress.
Bob Clark
I have honestly been surprised that no republicans have blamed President Obama because we have to use the Russian soyuz.
It would be dishonest to do so, not that politicians are against being dishonest. The White House wanted to accelerate commercial crew to eliminate the dependence on Russian launches. It was Congress that limited funding to that program that extends the time we have to use Russian launchers for manned flights.
Another bad decision by Congress was the cancelling of the White House plan to develop a U.S. replacement for the Russian engines used on the Atlas V.
Bob Clark