Before I start....
Yes, you read that correct. No, this is not a snark diary.
On Monday this week, the Tea Party in Space group (part of the Tea Party Patriots) publicly endorsed Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein.
And they were serious. Welcome to the bizarre world of space politics.
(BTW, to my friends and fans, if you are still around, I apologize for being gone so long)
So, let me give you some background. While there are some cool things going on in space (things like the Commercial Crew Program, and vehicles like the CST-100, the Dragon, and the Dreamchaser), one of the most contentious issues in the NASA budget is something called the Space Launch System (or, if you are like me, the Senate Launch System). There are many people who want it built around the existing shuttle systems because it maintains the existing infrastructure (not surprising, many of these people are either making money with the existing infrastructure, or they have campaign donors in that workforce - Looking at you Senator Hutchison.....). The problem is, using that workforce is incredibly costly, and NASA's budget has remained flat (and even then, I'd argue that we aren't getting good value for our money). And so what they are advocating is extending a sole-source, non-competative cost-plus contract. (yea, nothing bad ever came of doing that...)
There are other options, such as building it around existing, cheaper rockets (like the Atlas V, Delta IV, or Falcon 9). Or, you could have a formal competition, and use things like fixed price, and only paying when companies actually, you know, deliver a working product. This would be more in line with what Obama proposed for NASA in last year's budget.
Earlier this year, NASA issued an interim report and right now, NASA administrator Charlie Bolden is actively weighing what to do with this program.
So thats the background.
Late last week, the trade publication SpaceNews reported that Senators Barbara Boxer & Dianne Feinstein sent a letter to the NASA administrator, asking that he have a formal competition for the program. The letter pointed out that the NASA Authorization Act, which is driving this program, only has to use existing systems "where practicable", and since it wasn't practicable in many places, NASA should just hold a formal competition.
And then, earlier this week, the Tea Party in Space sent out the press release, stating
TEA Party in Space (TPIS), a non-partisan organization, today publicly praised a letter sent by California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden (link to the letter) about competing NASA’s procurement of the Space Launch System (SLS).
Space is just a weird environment.....
