…has told Congress to butt out.
It will be interesting to see how they respond. Culberson isn’t there any more. I’m not sure that Shelby will care, as long as the money continues to flow to Huntsville.
[Update early afternoon]
Here’s the story from Space News.
I dislike both sides of this story. Congress has every right to stick its nose into this, but for all the things they micro manage vs leave to the Executive Branch to decide; leave launch vehicle selection to the Executive Branch. And of course it’s been discussed here many times the foolishness of putting Europa on SLS.
But I assume NASA will have to go back to Congress to get the money for either a FH or D4H launcher in the next appropriation cycle if they want to stay on schedule with Clipper. Will they solicit bids first? More political football. Or with ULA focusing on Vulcan maybe D4H will just be too expensive now?
“Uh, Hi Mom Hi Dad! Yeah everything’s fine! Yes, I’m enjoying school! Um, I’m a little short on cash, can you please send more money?”
Being rendered irrelevant as well as impotent give them a moment of clarity, did it?