NASA has other rocket projects.
Posted on 07/12/2011 2:46:33 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
A congressional panel grilled NASA chief Charlie Bolden today (July 12) on Capitol Hill, repeatedly asking him why the space agency has yet to choose a design for its next-generation heavy-lift rocket.
Last year Congress gave NASA until mid-January 2011 to pick a design for the rocket, known as the Space Launch System, that will carry astronauts on deep space missions. NASA still has not made an official decision, and members of the House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space and Technology took Bolden to task.
"We've waited for answers that have not come. We've pleaded for answers that have not come," committee chairman Ralph Hall (R-Texas) told Bolden. "We've run out of patience."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Leave the man alone!
Cooking up false data for global warming, and muslim outreach is more than a full time job.
well, that’s one way to screw up the entire NASA program
... they gave all the prospective plans to the muzzies for them to choose the best one and report back....
NASA has other rocket projects.
“We’ve waited for answers that have not come. We’ve pleaded for answers that have not come,” committee chairman Ralph Hall (R-Texas) told Bolden.
They don’t have any answers. This Administration is the Most Clueless in History. They either have No Answers to a Problem. Or they Simply Blame Bush . Which ever answer is the Most Applicable.
Here it is six months later, and they’re getting around to asking questions.
Anyone remember that last time you turned in work more than six months late?
My first boss would go crazy is you were 6 minutes late!
Folks, we got to face it, the US has completely collapsed, ethically, morally and financially.
“deep space missions”
Really?
The moon isn’t “deep space’.
I’m pretty sure Mars isn’t even in “deep space”.
“Deep space” isn’t even in our lifetimes.
They’re still trying to kill developing heavy lift and Orion as ordered by congress, this of course was not what Ozero wanted.
They think they can get around congress by pulling this crap.
Correct. “Deep space” means leaving the solar system.
Mine too.
Look, we thought the nation was on the ropes under Carter too. Reagan got things back on track.
Things are more bleak today, but the right leader is going to come along and clean house.
I consider deep space to be between the stars. Even if we had kept the pace we were going deep space wouldn’t be in our lifetimes but it might have been within the lifetimes of our grandchildren.
To even consider sending men to deep space, we’ve got to get propulsion systems that can get us to at least 1/16 of lightspeed or more. Even then, there’s no reason to send men out to between the stars to do what unmanned craft can do. We need a destination to send men to.
Having been intimately involved with numerous government projects I can tell you exactly why they haven’t chosen a design. No leadership. Somebody has to take charge and make critical decisions. Somebody has to arbitrate between the competing potential customers. Everybody wants THEIR version to be the one chosen. The moment you make a decision a whole range of options disappear. A simple example would be the F111 swing wing fighter bomber. One group wanted a fighter, which mean small, agile, maneuverable and fast. Another group wanted a bomber. I think it was Secretary McNamara who decided one plane could do both. (Also, the father of the one gun for all applications, the M16.) A plane big enough to carry a significant bomb load was a poor fighter plane. A plane maneuverable enough and fast enough to be a fighter was a poor bomber. The plane did nothing well. I’ll bet the same arguments are happening now. Somebody wants a heavy lift vehicle and somebody just wants a space taxi.
Deep space is now defined to be non-orbital missions like the Moon or Mars.
Its sad. Just this morning we were talking about how much space has grown since the 1920s and now we’re talking about how our space is shrinking.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2747178/posts
At the rate of the world crumbling and going all Atlas Shrugged into Anthem on us, deep space will be the 5 minute trip on Virgin Galactic.
We HAVE the tech to achieve about 1/20 lightspeed if we put our brains together on an unmanned nuclear pulse engine. At least see what the Alpha Centauri system consists of in our grandchildren’s lifetimes.
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