Elections Can Have Consequences Billions Of Miles Away
Culberson’s ouster could spell big problems for NASA’s Orion program, experts say, Houston Chronicle
“NASA programs — especially Orion, which is focused on putting humans back on the moon — could be in trouble after Republican U.S. Rep. John Culberson lost his House seat to Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher. Culberson, a Republican from Texas, led the House Appropriations Committee that funds NASA for the last four years. And he’s been a stanch advocate of science and human spaceflight over his nearly two decades in office, said Keith Cowing, editor of NASA Watch, a website devoted to space news. “Nothing is better than to have an advocate for space science and exploration sitting on the committee in the House where NASA funding starts,” Cowing said Wednesday morning. … “Culberson may be partisan, but he’s a clear advocate for science,” Cowing said. … Still, it’s a shame to lose Culberson, Cowing said, because “so few people are championing science and exploration missions and putting their partisan stances aside, but here’s Culberson forcefully looking for life elsewhere.”
“The question is how will that affect NASA’s space science portfolio?””
Some takeaways for science from yesterday’s U.S. elections, Science
“Representative John Culberson (R-TX), who chairs a spending panel that funds NASA and the National Science Foundation, lost to Democrat Lizzie Fletcher. Culberson has been a major advocate of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to a jovian moon; his defeat could mean the project will face obstacles.”
What the 2018 midterms mean for NASA and planetary science, Planetary Society
“Europa Clipper, the mission currently in formulation that would fly by Europa dozens of times, is likely to continue without Culberson’s support. NASA has formally endorsed the mission, and it is highly ranked by the planetary science decadal survey report. If pressed, I would say the odds of Europa Clipper launching on an SLS have now dropped considerably, and its launch date also now likely to be in the mid-2020s as opposed to 2022. I have a hard time seeing how the Europa lander project continues without Culberson, because NASA has not formally requested the mission, and it lacks consensus support from the scientific community. Culberson had been planning — and still may be able to — allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to this effort in fiscal year 2019, but no other member of Congress is likely to pick up that effort in 2020 or beyond.”
Keith’s note: Looks like Planetary Society wants you to think that its time to give up on the exploration of Europa.
No need to panic at all. Historically, both parties have been hot and cold on space. For instance, John Kennedy started the moon space race, Lyndon Johnson continued it (hey, it was centered in Houston!). Richard Nixon cancelled the Apollo program once it was successful (He couldn’t stand the fact that it was a Kennedy initiative!). More recently, George W. Bush directed NASA to go back to the moon. Obama cancelled that initiative, saying it was too expensive, and so NASA started promoting a trip to mars (What? If the moon was too expensive, then mars?). And congress then took it upon themselves to fund the SLS and Orion, which were pieces of the Bush initiative. I think Jim Bridenstine, the current Administrator, will be able to navigate the political waters and bring a successful termination to the oh so expensive SLS, and transition to commercial options, thus focusing NASA on programs to conduct once we reach either moon or mars, or both.
Has Lizzie Fletcher made any public comments about space positions during the campaign?
It probably doesn’t matter since as a first term rep, it’s unlikely she’ll get any good committee assignments.
I checked Texas’ 7th congressional district and it’s on the other side of town from Johnson Space Center. I was thinking it might matter for her to talk about it. It still might have some importance.
Doesn’t matter since as a new Representative she has little power to do anything except maybe voice an opinion. She most likely won’t even be on the same subcommittees given her stated interests.
NASA is an R&D outfit with a broad mandate to use taxpayer dollars o produce important science and practical technology. Generally Congressional micromanagement does not help the situation since it is inevitably affected by personal bias and local political interests.
Advocacy is welcome, but pushing SLS does harm that outweighs any possible good.
“If pressed, I would say the odds of Europa Clipper launching on an SLS have now dropped considerably, and its launch date also now likely to be in the mid-2020s as opposed to 2022.”
Good. There is no need to launch this on SLS.