Rep. Mo Brooks joins leaders asking NASA for answers to Russian rocket engine ban, Huntsville Times “In a statement released today, Brooks repeated his often-stated charge that America would not be without human spaceflight capability if the Obama administration had not cancelled the Constellation rocket program shortly after taking office in 2010. That decision, plus an earlier decision by the George W. Bush administration to retire the space shuttle and […]

Keith’s update: Looks like the Constellation rehash FISO telecon (see below) has been changed (no explanation given). Instead, this week’s presentation is “Making Human Mars Exploration Affordable: Results of a Workshop” Joseph Cassady, Aerojet Rocketdyne & Michael Raftery, Boeing”. It will be held tomorrow (Wednesday) at 3pm EST. Dial in: 877-921-5751 Passcode: 623679. Also, and perhaps I am being a little paranoid, but when I try to reach this link […]

Statement of Chairman Lamar Smith Full Science, Space, and Technology Committee Organizational Meeting “It’s my hope that we will be considered a bipartisan committee, working together for the best interests of our country.” House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Oversight Plan for the 113th Congress “The Committee will also examine the impact of large increases in funding for the Earth Science Directorate relative to funding requested for other science disciplines.” […]

NASA Human Space Flight Industrial Base in the Post-Space Shuttle/Constellation Environment, Bureau of Industry and Security’s Office of Technology Evaluation “The Shuttle retirement and CxP transition will impact future NASA HSF programs through a loss of unique skills, capabilities, products, and services by select suppliers. The assessment highlights and prioritizes immediate areas of concern for NASA, with focus on the 150 survey respondents that identified themselves as dependent on NASA. […]

Obama failed space program; Romney would revitalize it, opinon, Gene Cernan, Orlando Sentinel “Frankly, the world’s leading space-faring nation shouldn’t have to pay Russia for rides to the International Space Station. That’s not only an insult to the hundreds of women and men like me who have built a legacy based on, literally, reaching for the stars, but it also hurts the local economy and puts local jobs at risk […]

How NASA Solved a $100 Million Problem for Five Bucks, Gizmodo “A few years ago, back when the Constellation Program was still alive, NASA engineers discovered that the Ares I rocket had a crucial flaw, one that could have jeopardized the entire project. They panicked. They plotted. They steeled themselves for the hundreds of millions of dollars it was going to take to make things right. And then they found […]

NASA cost, denial key to saving space program, Florida Today “Perhaps the single biggest threat to the nation’s space program in the next decade is the repeated, rampant multi-billion dollar cost overruns that plague big NASA projects. The senior leaders of NASA and its big contractors repeatedly deliver projects billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule. And to add insult to taxpayers’ injury, they revise history to obscure […]

Bolden: New rocket differs from Constellation because “It’s going to be disciplined.”, Houston Chronicle “What’s going to be different? It’s going be disciplined, it’s going to be the way we do business and things like using students to help us develop modules, which we did not do before … really integrating students and academia into this. That’s building the ‘seed coin’ for the future generation that’s going to take my […]

Let the Games Begin, opinion, Mike Griffin, SpaceNews “The administration’s actions go beyond simple mismanagement of the program. They amount to a smear campaign, with convenient leaking of derogatory and misleading information to the press, to undermine public support for the program. On Aug. 5, the Orlando Sentinel cited internal NASA documents detailing a $38 billion estimate for a “new NASA moon rocket.” This estimate is entirely out of line […]

Keith’s note: Have a look at tomorrow’s House Science Committee Hearing. Specifically, have a look at the charter for tomorrow’s hearing “NASA’s Commercial Cargo Providers: Are They Ready to Supply the Space Station in the Post-Shuttle Era?” Curiously, after watching NASA spend more than $12 billion on Constellation with only the semi-dummy Ares 1-X rocket to show for it in terms of flight hardware, the committee never planned any oversight […]