Reps. Gene Green (TX-29), Frank Wolf (VA-10), and John Culberson (TX-07) today expressed strong support for the Senate NASA authorization bill’s inclusion of funding for a NASA-owned heavy lift vehicle capable of traveling to the moon, Mars and beyond.
The President’s budget proposal released on February 1 cancelled the Constellation program and instead proposed funding for space transportation solely in up-and-coming private companies. Congress strongly rejected this, citing concerns of terminating a program in which taxpayers had made a $9 billion investment and relying on companies without proven capabilities. In the following months, Members of Congress worked with industry experts and with NASA and the Obama Administration to reach a compromise: Immediately develop a heavy lift vehicle and continue funding for the Orion, the deep space crew capsule.
The catalyst for compromise came in the form of a bipartisan letter signed by more than 60 House Members and led by Rep. Green, Rep. Wolf, Rep. Ruppersberger and Rep. Culberson. The letter called on President Obama to support the immediate development of a heavy lift architecture – as opposed to waiting until 2015 – allowing the United States to continue the elite astronaut corps, preserve an irreplaceable workforce, protect the defense industrial base, and ensure that the U.S. will travel beyond low-Earth orbit within the decade.
Today the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee passed a bill that authorizes the immediate development of a heavy lift vehicle. The new direction for NASA’s human space flight program will utilize the engineering and technology advancements accomplished through Constellation and keep the United States at the forefront of space exploration. Now, the House Science and Technology Committee must act quickly to ensure NASA immediately develops a heavy lift vehicle and continues investment in the Orion.
Rep. Gene Green:
“Ensuring that our nation remains at the forefront of human space exploration is a top priority of mine. I believe that this compromise is an important step toward maintaining America’s preeminence in science and technology, especially space exploration.”
Rep. Frank Wolf:
“I was pleased to see the Senate embrace our compromise proposal, which ensures continued American leadership in space. Last month, 62 members of the House representing 18 states sent a strong message to the president urging his support for this compromise. I am pleased that the Senate sent a similar message today.”
Rep. John Culberson:
“I could not be more pleased to see that the Senate answered our call to protect the taxpayers’ investment and ensure that the United States remains the leader in human space exploration. This was a team effort, and I want to thank Reps. Wolf, Green, and Olson as well as my other colleagues who have worked tirelessly to protect NASA’s human space flight program.”
I support the commercialization of space – in time. However, we need to maintain our lead in space in LEO and move out beyond, and to do that we need the HLV! Thank you for your support Congressman Culberson.
Freya Jackson of the Mars Society said it very well today, “…“The Senate Committee was absolutely right in insisting on immediate funding of HLV development,” Dr. Zubrin said. “Heavy lift is the essential prerequisite for sending human explorers beyond low Earth orbit. We flew our first HLV, the Saturn V, in 1967, and two years later we were on the Moon. Lacking HLV capability since the 1970s, we have not gone anywhere in 37 years.
“That said, HLV capability, while necessary, is by itself insufficient for a productive human space exploration program. We also need a coherent set of flight hardware elements for the HLV to lift. President Obama has called for NASA to make a mission to a near Earth asteroid by 2025 its proximate goal, as a milestone towards a human mission to Mars by mid century. These goals are good, but the schedule is unnecessarily slow and costly.
“A mission to a near Earth asteroid requires four primary flight elements: a crew reentry capsule, a space habitation module, an upper stage capable of throwing the capsule/hab combination on an Earth-escape trajectory, and an HLV to lift the lot to low Earth orbit. Under the Senate Committee’s provisions, work on the capsule and the HLV are now funded. The upper stage should also be included within the HLV program, just as the S-IVB was in the Saturn V development. The hab module development, incorporating life support, power, and deep space maneuver systems should be funded as soon as possible…”
SpaceX and others should be encouraged and supported but our priority should be what we can do now if we put our mind to it.
Thanks
MF