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Did NASA Deliver The ISS Transition Plan To Congress Required By Law? Update: No

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
December 11, 2017
Filed under , ,
Did NASA Deliver The ISS Transition Plan To Congress Required By Law? Update: No

Keith’s 11 Dec update: I did not hear back from NASA so I sent a second request. Stephanie Schierholz at NASA HQ PAO just sent this reply to my second request: “NASA is keeping Congress apprised as to the progress of the ISS Transition Report and plans to provide this report to the Committee as soon as possible. Please reach out to the Committee about obtaining a copy of the report once it is submitted.”
In other words the report is late, has not been delivered, NASA does not know when it will be delivered. NASA is not going to tell anyone when it has been delivered and people will have to go ask Congress where the report is – whenever NASA gets around to delivering it.
Keith’s 8 Dec update: Several sources report that the congressionally-mandated “ISS Transition Plan” (or whatever NASA decides to call it) may be part of the Administration’s FY2019 budget proposal package that is sent to Congress in the January/February 2018 time frame. This does not mean, however, that NASA will publicly release the report at that time – if they ever release it at all.

Keith’s note: NASA HEOMD AA Bill Gerstenmaier spoke at the NASA Advisory Council Human Exploration and Operations Committee meeting on 29 November. It certainly seems that he has decided that NASA is not going to comply with S.442 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017 – which is now law. In that law Congress told NASA that they are to deliver a ISS Transition plan no later than 1 December 2017. It is a week later. All indications I get from NASA – and Gerstenmaier’s statement – make it clear that there is no plan to be delivered. At today’s NASA Advisory Council meeting the report never came up although some high level chatter about ISS transition was heard. So I sent NASA a request:
“1. Has NASA delivered the “ISS Transition Plan” to Congress – as specified by law?
2. Can you provide me with a copy of this report?
3. Does the report contain all of the items requested (in law) as specified below?”

According to S.442 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017 (Public Law No: 115-10 (03/21/2017))
“(1) ((NOTE: Coordination.)) In general.–The Administrator, in coordination with the ISS management entity (as defined in section 2 of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017), ISS partners, the scientific user community, and the commercial space sector, shall develop a plan to transition in a step-wise approach from the current regime that relies heavily on NASA sponsorship to a regime where NASA could be one of many customers of a low-Earth orbit non-governmental human space flight enterprise.
(2) Reports.–Not later than December 1, 2017, and biennially thereafter until 2023, the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives a report that includes–“

Full section in earlier post “Is NASA Going To Break The Law By Not Delivering An ISS Transition Plan To Congress?

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

10 responses to “Did NASA Deliver The ISS Transition Plan To Congress Required By Law? Update: No”

  1. Vladislaw says:
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    “ISS partners, the scientific user community, and the commercial space sector, shall develop a plan to transition in a step-wise approach from the current regime that relies heavily on NASA sponsorship to a regime where NASA could be one of many customers of a low-Earth orbit non-governmental human space flight enterprise.”

    Change to a regime that does NOT rely on NASA and no one has to jump through NASA hoops….

    Apparently this is a big NO from bill G.

    • kcowing says:
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      “Plan”? What plan? 😉

    • Michael Spencer says:
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      This would be a huge switch in ‘corporate’ thinking, and every time it comes up I wonder the same thing: does NASA actually embrace a change from the current ‘invented-here’ regime to one in which rockets and airline tickets are about the same thing?

      What’s the sense at NASA? Are they fighting this transition by obfuscation and delay? What do folks think who actually work at any of the centers?

  2. NArmstrong says:
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    Do you think they have a plan and that they know where they are going ?

    • Michael Spencer says:
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      They think they have a plan and they think they know where they are going.

      • NArmstrong says:
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        Maybe we will see a new plan tomorrow?

        Right now I think NASA Watch readers know as much as anyone as far as NASA’s plan.

        The one thing I have not seen covered in NASA Watch is the information about the cause of the astronaut’s eyesight problems. The problems were discovered several years ago, but the reasons only became known in the last few months; brain stem fluid production rather than simple fluid shift. A lot more serious studies are needed about artificial and partial-G effects. That kind of research was cancelled years ago to save a few ISS dollars.