Apparently, among the many other idiotic things that the Senate authorization draft does is to kill the CRuSR program, the NASA initiative to encourage more suborbital science, which will be helpful in growing the industry. There is an effort afoot to fix this.
[Update a while later]
Jeff Foust has more.
[Update a few minutes later]
John Gedmark of the Commercial Space Federation is sending out an alert:
URGENT: Commercial Space in Jeopardy — Call Your Senator TODAY
A new authorization bill for NASA includes major cuts to commercial spaceflight, but Senator Warner has offered an amendment to restore those cuts and move commercial space forward.
The NASA Authorization Bill being proposed cuts the proposed Commercial Crew Program by $2.1 billion (up to 66%), seriously affecting commercial space efforts by such companies as SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, and Orbital Sciences. Senator Warner’s amendment will restore full funding to the program, but he needs YOUR help to get support from other Senators!
The Warner Amendment will be voted on Thursday morning. Now is the time to call your Senator to say, “Please support the Warner Amendment for commercial spaceflight that will create over 10,000 jobs, and reduce our dependence on Russia!” This is your chance to make a difference in the course of space history! (The phone numbers for each Senator on the committee are below, so please check to see if you or your parents are a residents of one of those states!)
Majority
Rockefeller (D-West Virginia)-Chair – 202-224-6472
Inouye (D-Hawaii) – 202-224-3934
Kerry (D-Massachusetts) – 202-224-2742
Dorgan (D-North Dakota) – 202-224-2551
Boxer (D-California) – 202-224-3553
Nelson (D-Florida) – 202-224-5274
Cantwell (D-Washington State) – 202-224-3441
Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) – 202-224-3224
Pryor (D-Arkansas) – 202-224-2353
McCaskill (D-Missouri) – 202-224-6154
Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) – 202-224-3244
Udall (D-New Mexico) – 202-224-6621
Warner (D-Virginia) – 202-224-2023
Begich (D-Alaska) – 202-224-3004Minority
Hutchison (R-Texas)-Ranking Member – 202-224-5922
Snowe (R-Maine) – 202-224-5344
Ensign (R-Nevada) – 202-224-6244
DeMint (R-South Carolina) – 202-224-6121
Thune (R-South Dakota) – 202-224-2321
Wicker (R-Mississippi) – 202-224-6253
LeMieux (R-Florida) – 202-224-3041
Isakson (R-Georgia) – 202-224-3643
Vitter (R-Louisiana) – 202-224-4623
Brownback (R-Kansas) – 202-224-6521
Johanns (R-Nebraska) – 202-224-4224
If one of these is your Senator, let them know.
I predict Tom Udall will get CRuSR fully funded at $15 million.
There is an effort afoot to fix this.
This is a committee vote, isn’t it? If the Udall or Warner amendment is adopted, does that mean the respective senator will vote in favour of the entire bill in a floor vote?
[[[kill the CRuSR program]]]
Actually this would be a blessing to the suborbital industry since it would allow them to stay focused on COMMERCIAL markets like they are now.
The worst thing that could happen to suborbital firms like Virgin Galactic would be to be sucked into the NASA contractor sphere.
Keep Commercial Suborbital Commercial!
Keep Commercial Suborbital Commercial!
Sure, you only have their best interests at heart.
Her Highness Barbara Boxer is also submitting an amendment to restore funding for R&D. The Planetary Society is urging its members and supporters to contact their senators in support of this amendment. The PS does see some good things in the Nelson bill (heh!), including “the deep-space rocket”.
I don’t know if these guys really think a big rocket is necessary or even helpful, but this might be a good time to remind the senators that it is neither. Everybody can get their pet schemes if the big rocket goes away.
Personally, if I had to choosing between killing the Shuttle stack, funding R&D or commercial crew development, then I’d choose killing the Shuttle stack. Everything else can be fixed later.
Martijn Meijering,
Yes, as I would like to see at least one segment of New Space stay independent of government handouts and the whims of Congressional funding.
Don’t you want to see a true commercial launch industry emerge? Or are you happy to just see a new set of government contractors created, one whose future is entirely at the mercy of Congress?
As I said above I don’t care all that much about the funding. I want to see the Shuttle stack retired for good. If various senators want the right thing (retiring the Shuttle stack) for the wrong reasons (pork), then I’m not complaining.
Honestly, I dunno what the suborbital market’s problem is.. other than not-invented-here. Virgin Galactic invested in a nice plane from Scaled Composites, unfortunately they think they bought some rocket tech too.. so SC can’t just give up on SpaceDev’s hybrid and go with XCOR’s liquids because that would be admitting that they sold VG a lemon.
Hopefully Carmack will ride into town and smoke ’em.
Don’t you want to see a true commercial launch industry emerge? Or are you happy to just see a new set of government contractors created, one whose future is entirely at the mercy of Congress?
I’d rather see NASA get the hell out of the way as much as possible.
Ed,
[[[I’d rather see NASA get the hell out of the way as much as possible.]]]
Keeping NASA from funding suborbital is a huge first step in that direction.