Main Article: Will Obama let NASA get "bogged down" in Space?
It looks like President-Elect Obama is exploring options. Is the "new vision" the end of the old "vision"? Is there a new future for COTS-D?
Page 2: "Fla.'s bad weather sends shuttle arrival to Calif."
Vote@Poll: So let it be written, so let it be done.
President-Elect Obama promised "change" during 21 months of campaigning. Is change coming to NASA?
Star Trek: In the News.
COUNTDOWN STOPPED, I believe the Shuttle will keep flying to close the gap and constellation will be canceled.
In a recent article in Space News it was reported that President-Elect Obama wanted some numbers. Numbers for how much could be saved in NASA budgeting if the ARES I & ARES V were stopped and the Orion, pared down.
"WASHINGTON — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's NASA transition team is asking U.S. space agency officials to quantify how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket and scaling back the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle next year." Space News Staff Writer-BRIAN BERGER
The Ares I and Ares V are the cornerstone to President Bush's Vision for Space Exploration
or VSE announced in Jan. 2004.
I believe if ARES I gets canceled then ARES V will be canceled as well. If Orion gets scaled down to to launch on and Atlas V or Delta IV then it would be used primarily as crew vehicle for travel between Earth and the International Space Station (ISS).
The Article in Space News ended with this:
"Obama's NASA transition team also appears to be interested in a number of specific projects that have more or less languished in recent years. mong those projects are: the Deep Space Climate Observatory;, a mothballed Earth-observing satellite formerly known as Triana; agency efforts to catalog asteroids and comets that could threaten Earth; and the harnessing of space-based solar power for use on Earth."
What they didn't mention about the "Triana" was that it was a project favored by then Vice President Al Gore. It was often criticized by the Republicans and was known the GoreCam. It was skewered in a letter to:
"Dear Congress: Cancel Triana - Now.
An open letter from Keith Cowing, Editor, NASA Watch
14 May 1999
Dear fellow space program supporters:
There comes a time when supporters of a fiscally responsible and scientifically credible space program need to stand up and be heard. Now is such a time. Al Gore forced NASA to implement his Triana satellite. Congress has now moved to cancel Triana. Triana needs to stay cancelled and you need to help make sure that happens."NASA Watch
Keith Cowing goes on at length presenting his rational for not supporting this project. The Satellite has been sitting in storage for the last eight years at a cost of 0ne Million dollars a year. It was scheduled to be launched in 2000 after Gore's win for President against the current President G. Bush.
Is the launching of this mission part of the political payback for Gore in his support for President-Elect Obama?
The article also points out Commercial Orbital Transportation Services:
"The transition team also wants information from NASA about accelerating plans for using the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to fund demonstrations of vehicles capable of carrying crews to the international space station, a proposal Obama supported during his campaign. NASA is not asked what it could save by canceling COTS. Nor is NASA asked to contemplate canceling the space shuttle or space station programs, although the transition team does request the budget implications of flying the shuttle until 2015 and committing to U.S. utilization of the space station through 2020." Space News
The COTS program was for cargo delivery to the ISS and with COTS-D for a crewed delivery. This is a commercial solution to manned access to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and with a possible nod to Bill Richardson as Sec. of Commerce help both "New Space" and a pet project of Gov. Richardson, Spaceport America:
"Spaceport America (formerly named Southwest Regional Spaceport) is a commercial spaceport currently being developed on 27 square miles (70 km2) of state-owned desert near Upham, an uninhabited place in Sierra County, New Mexico.[1] The site is 45 miles (72 km) north of Las Cruces, and 30 miles (48 km) east of Truth or Consequences, near the perimeter of the White Sands Missile Range. As of early 2007, the "fledgling spaceport" consists of "a 100-foot (30 m) by 25-foot (7.6 m) concrete slab."[2] Five suborbital rocket launches from the site have been reported to date."
As has been widely reported, Sir Richard Branson's, Virgin Galatic Is the anchor for the new commercial spaceport. I believe we may be seeing what is soon to be a shake up between Old Space and New Space.
I have advocated against a Moon Base and any type of commercialization until the issue of private property rights are settled. I would prefer NASA get out of the LEO launch business, UNLESS they are developing a new concept for LEO access. If not that, they can buy a ticket from Space X.
NASA should focus on a LEO Fuel Depot and an IN SPACE vehicle, concentrating on LEO to GEO. We can start working on satellites and deorbiting space junk. We need to beable to take the "car" out of the garage and drive to GEO reliably and routinely. I would not like to see NASA get bogged down on the moon, like the ISS,
and never beable to do much else because the new money pit ties their hands over any other point in space NASA would want to visit with a manned flight.
PAGE 2: Shuttle to return to California because of high winds.
"Fla.'s bad weather sends shuttle arrival to Calif." Shuttle return "CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Dangerously high wind and a stormy sky prevented space shuttle Endeavour from returning to its home base in Florida on Sunday, and NASA ordered the astronauts to take a detour and land in sunny California.
With a gloomy Florida forecast for Monday as well, Mission Control opted to send Endeavour to Edwards Air Force Base, the backup landing site. Touchdown was scheduled for 4:25 p.m. EST.
"It is what it is," shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson radioed. "We'll see you on the ground in California."
Endeavour and its crew are wrapping up a 16-day trip that left the international space station freshly remodeled and capable of housing bigger crews. Returning home is former space station resident Gregory Chamitoff, who's been off the planet since the end of May."
Lets all hope they have a boring and uneventful landing in California.
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As promised Ferris Valyn delivered a New Diary and it is another look at what is going on inside Washington politics and NASA. In writing about President Bush and his possibility of appointing someone at the last minute:
"In other words, its a pretty important job. And given that this is happening around a presidential transition, you would think that the outgoing Administration would have the decency to allow for the incoming Administration to position its own people. Well, don't bet on it. The time frame from when the job was posted, to when it closes - Nov 20 thru Dec 1 - thats right, less than 2 weeks and its during a major national holiday. If this doesn't seem like a custom tailored spot for burrowing, then I am sure I am missing something."
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STAR TREK: In The News.
One Click Wonder: Star Trek
"Pointy ears at the ready! After a long hiatus from the silver screen, Star Trek is back in the New Year, with ‘Lost’ creator J J Adams at the helm of a prequel about the young James Kirk and Spock. Here we celebrate all things Trekkie."
Today's Poll
So Let it be Written, So let it be done. Don't get bogged down with a moon base, stop the Constellation program, or full speed ahead.