Will Ukraine Invasion Mobilize Support for U.S. Commercial Crew?
Ukraine crisis could end U.S. space reliance on Russia, Politico
“In previous budgets, Congress hasn’t fully funded commercial crew requests as a way of finding savings, to the chagrin of its advocates. “The president has been requesting approximately $800 million every year since his FY12 budget submission to fund the development of American vehicles to provide access to the ISS, only to have Congress, led primarily by the GOP but not exclusively, dramatically undercut that funding,” said Dale Ketcham, chief of strategic alliances for Space Florida, the state’s spaceport authority and aerospace development organization. But Russia’s incursion into Crimean region of Ukraine has put the spotlight on the U.S. and Russia’s codependence in space, and could provide the political capital necessary for the program to get full funding this time around.”
US legislators in Washington, our so called representatives, do not make decisions and choices beginning or ending with the question – what is best for America. Lobbyists, special interest groups and big campaign contributors determine the choices they make. If they can make a decision and it happens to look patriotic and in the best interest of the citizenry, well, that is a bonus. Now I grant there are a few exceptions amongst these people on Capitol Hill – a dwindling few, and most those on the Hill would claim to be part of that 1%.
So the choice to not fully fund Commercial Crew falls into this big category of legislative choices made not in the best interest of the United States but rather what is in the best interest of corporate America, increasingly two different things.
If any member of Congress had a single active synapse, the answer would unequivocally be: YES!
But then I listened to the “National Security Space Launch Programs” hearing. There was a conservative Republican arguing in favor of a monopoly, being helped by an academic. God help us.
It is ironic that conservatives argue against competition and private enterprise in space and support dependence on an American monopoly and the generosity of the Russians. But then, critical thinking is dead. Politics trumps reason. If Obama is for it, I’m agin’ it. End of story.
More money for CC may not help. Boeing has missed a Oct ’13 milestone as has SpaceX a Dec. ’13. NASA already had the money to pay them. The companies had a problem or NASA wanted changes. The millions of $ they would have got did not make these companies complete the milestones. NASA only announces completion of Milestones not failures. The only reason they gave was that it was ’12 when the schedule came out. That is an excuse not a reason. Maybe the reason SpaceX is only charging 30 million $ for the in flight abort is that they will use one of the recovered 1st stages. I wish we did not have to partner with the Russians. Stopping transporting our people on Soyuz would be a good sanction. At least do not contract more seats.