Rep. Bridenstine Speaks at FAA Space Commercial Space Conference
As tweeted by @NASAWatch from the FAA Commercial Space Transportation conference in Washington, DC today:
– Bridenstine: talking about Gene Cernan and his dream of sending Americans back to the Moon
– Bridenstine is presenting a laundry list of things China is doing/planning in space that America no longer does.
– Bridenstine: when we started paying Russia for Soyuz seats cost was $21m. Now it is $80m. “We are being gouged”
– Bridenstine: need to strike balance between what govt operates and what it procures
– Bridenstine: space situational awareness should be done by civilian entity no DOD
– Bridenstine wants to see govt models for for procurement augmented by commercial solutions
– Bridenstine: govt needs to plan for commercial systems in architectures
– Bridenstine: value of commercial solutions in space because prices lower due to competition
– Bridenstine: talks about commercial paths to cis-lunar space and surface of the Moon
– Bridenstine: need to update regulatory environment for space industry. FAA AST must be adequately funded.
– Bridenstine: FAA office commercial space has battles within FAA. Reorganization needed. Looking for Trump to elevate office
– Bridnestine: space is both an advantage and an Achilles heel
– Bridenstine: laments fact that DoD provides space debris assessments for Chinese ASAT to China for their space station safety
– Bridenstine: “USAF should not be the FAA of space”
– Bridenstine: FAA AST should be agency responsible for space situational awareness
– Bridenstine: wants clarity among U.S. regulations as to whether commercial efforts can operate in space.
– Bridenstine: companies can get clearer regulatory certainty abroad for space issues than in U.S.
– Briedenstine is clearly setting the stage for a possible Administratorship at @NASA
– Bridenstine: frustrated with #EELV program and @SpaceX vs @ulalaunch arguments
– Bridenstine: I 100% support sending humans to Mars. We need to go to Mars #JourneyToMars
– Bridenstine: “I think that the Moon is a piece of that direction” #JourneyToMars
– Bridenstine: yes we will be reintroducing Space Renassiance Act
– Earlier tweet: I asked Bridenstine if he supported #NASA current #JourneyToMars plans
– Bridenstine: thinks #NASA should go back to the moon – to stay – not just do another flags and footprints
– Bridenstine: Asked if he’s going to harmonize bills on space w/ Rep. Babin. Encouraged audience to talk to him. Not there right now
– Bridenstine suggests having more commercial satellites & overlap w/ military makes it harder for China et al to damage capabilities
– Bridenstine rattles off lots of communications specs without blinking or referring to notes. Impressive
– Observation: Bridenstine struts his stuff WRT military, comm space. Can he become equally adept in all areas of interest to #NASA?
– Bridenstine: says that his constituents in Oklahoma get killed by tornadoes. Space assets are essential for forecasting
– Bridenstine: on SLS /Orion – critical to America’s pre-eminence in space. I fully support both programs
– Bridenstine: how do we establish and maintain American pre-eminence of space?
These comments sound promising. It will be interesting to see how much influence he may have going forward and if others in power will back him up.
Hard to follow any logic. Climate Change Denier as well.
Mooning has nothing to do with long duration deep space travel. No architecture. Not qualified for entry level position.
NASA has outlined its needs in the Space Grand Challenges (Economic Access to Space #1) and the (unflawed portions of the) VSE without its flaws added at the last moment: “‘mooning’ by 2020”, “‘mooning’ prepares NASA for Mars”,
“For future, sustainable exploration programs, NASA requires cost-effective vehicles that may be reused, have systems that could be applied to more than one destination, and are highly reliable and need only small ground crews. NASA plans to invest in a number of new approaches to exploration, such as robotic networks, modular systems, pre-positioned propellants, advanced power and propulsion, and in-space assembly, that could enable these kinds of vehicles.”
– Bridenstine: how do we establish and maintain American pre-eminence of space?
By becoming an anchor tenant in Space stations in LEO – GEO – EMLP1 &2
once commercial transportation for lunar landings and a commercial hab lands be anchor tenant.
Funny thing that folks continually seem to miss or forget or not understand is that there is only one customer in space regarding human space flight, and that is the government. There is only a single destination in space, the ISS. And no company has come up with a comprehensive, self-sustaining business model for putting more humans any where off Earth. Chicken and egg? Or, if you build it they will come? What business is willing to take the chance in such a high front-end cost endeavor when there is no viable pay off? Humanity has not yet crossed the juncture of having sufficient demand off Earth to warrant a bar in space. And as the biggest money making ventures in the California gold rush of 49 was not the majority of miners but all the entrepreneurs who set up support businesses for those miners. And this example does not imply that there will be a similar gold rush in space; in fact quite the opposite, we have not found the “gold” of space that would drive such a movement yet. No more flags and foot steps.
“Funny thing that folks continually seem to miss or forget or not understand is that there is only one customer in space regarding human space flight, and that is the government.”
And Senator Richard Shelby is intent on keeping it that way. That secures his political leverage through MSFC over the politics of getting re-elected in Alabama. His turf warrior allies inside NASA want the same monopoly to continue. Their efforts between 1979 and 2004, and from 2009 to the present, are exemplary of that.
“There is only a single destination in space, the ISS. And no company has come up with a comprehensive, self-sustaining business model for putting more humans any where off Earth.”
Actually, Bigelow Aerospace has done just that. They simply needed two available boosters to guarantee access, and they will now have them. They have announced that they will launch 2 stations between now and 2020.
Announced, scheduled, hoped for…..”the best-laid plans of mice and men…”
The “commercial crew” providers are ALL finding out just how difficult this business is, and schedules move to the right….
I would not hold your breath if I were you.
The schedules are moving to the right primarily because of NASA’s bureaucratic processes and slowness to review and provide feedback, not because of any technical challenges.
Bridenstine seems to be restating the obvious in many cases. He seems to be aiming for status quo on most current big human space projects. I don’t care too much about his technical experience. What I do care about is whether he is well connected and politically savvy and has Trump’s ear. I have no information to be able to assess his ability from these aspects.
When Kennedy directed Nasa to go to the moon, we had no launch vehicle, no Cape infrastructure, no crew vehicle, no LEM and no Astronaut Corp. In less than 10 years we were not only on the moon but driving around. Forty six years of abysmal political and Nasa leadership leadership can best be described as “fumbling our future” whereas folks who didn’t qualify to carry our lunch pail are now comparable to or exceeding our capabilities. Nasa has burned 12 plus years and billions trying to develop a new launch vehiclye which is yet to fly. Pathetic! But blowing away eight years of Bolden’s ” don’t rock the boat” leadership and guidance from such technical giants as Garver and Dale, you can readily see why folks are looking to commercial guidance. Back to the moon? Mars? Before we waste another 8-10 years maybe Nasa can resolve the problem that we have ZERO data that proves we can keep human beings alive, fed and productive for 30+ months. Theres nothing wrong with the folks in Nasa, it remains a leadership issue. One can only hope this Administration will jerk the system around, restructure the organization and give the people the will and the way to succeed.
Not completely a fair comparison. In today’s money, the 1960s Apollo budget was unlimited, with a total expended of close to $200 billion in today’s money. NASAs real problem today is that they don’t know where they are going, why, and if they really think they are going to Mars, they don’t know how to get there.
On the other hand, we have an ISS in orbit, now for nearly 20 years. NASA has spent going on $200 billion in today’s money, and the program has been ongoing for more than 3 decades, yet NASA does not seem to know what it is for and how to use it. NASA management needs to get their act together.
I like to remember a quote form one of the Apollo astronauts, I think TK Mattingly. He said that he did not know how to do most of the jobs of the people who supported his mission, but he knew how to do his job and he was not going to let everyone down by not doing his job correctly. Unfortunately, NASA management in human space flight seems to not know their jobs or how to do them. Bridenstine’s job is not a technical job. He needs to figure out what NASA needs to be doing and strategize how to get the program to do those jobs.