Administrative, Political Commentary, Space

Back In The Saddle Again

6 Comments

We got a 7:30 AM flight out of O’Hare and arrived at LAX about 10:30. Unfortunately, our gate was jammed with a disabled aircraft, and the alternate gate took a while to find someone to drive the jetway to the right height and distance. But I’m back home now, and getting ready to tackle the latest space-policy lunacy from the Hill.

6 thoughts on “Back In The Saddle Again”

  2. Rand,

    You may start here 😉

    The House just released their version of the authorization Act.

    http://democrats.science.house.gov/Media/file/Commdocs/NASA_Authorization_Act_2010.pdf

    It also has heavy lift and Orion

    As I warned some months ago, NASA will take an active role in the design of commercial crew spacecraft and will develop requirements for certifying them as human rated.

    From page 49

    [[[NASA INSIGHT AND OVERSIGHT PROCESSES.—
    Any company that seeks to provide commercial crew transportation services under contract to NASA shall enter into an arrangement with NASA that allows NASA to obtain ongoing insight into the design methodologies, processes, technologies, test data, and production and quality control practices employed in the development of the commercial crew transportation system throughout the development, test, demonstration, and production phases. NASA may offer early warning of conditions that could lead NASA to withhold certification of the crew transportation systems for the flight of United States Government personnel or to decline to enter into a contract for services. NASA may not require the company to make changes to its design, technologies, or processes during the development, test, demonstration, or production phases. ]]]

    And on page 50, certification of the vehicles

    [[[(1) CERTIFICATION OF SAFETY AND RELIABILITY.—Before entering into a contract for the use of commercially available commercial crew transportation or crew rescue services for United States Government astronauts, the Administrator shall certify that a commercial ISS crew transportation and crew rescue service provider with which a contract is planned has demonstrated the safety and reliability of its systems for crew transportation and crew rescue to be equivalent to NASA-promulgated safety and reliability policies, procedures, and standards for human spaceflight. Individual certifications made under this paragraph shall be provided to the Committee on Science and Technology of the House of Representatives and to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate.]]]

    Of course the good news is NASA will now provide low cost direct loans or loan guarantees to commercial firms building commercial crew systems. If they don’t’ pay the loan back NASA will get to keep their assets.

    However there is a restriction. The cost per seat of commercial crew must be less per seat then Orion, or NASA won’t be allowed to buy it.

  3. “The cost per seat of commercial crew must be less per seat then Orion, or NASA won’t be allowed to buy it.”

    Ha ha. And who gets to calculate what the “cost per seat” is for Orion?

  4. Jim,

    Take a guess…

    But at least we will know what the per seat cost of Orion is 🙂

  6. Rand,

    No, we will know the price per seat for the commercial space vendors because that is why they will charge NASA.

    Since Orion is operated by NASA the proper term is cost per seat, since NASA is not selling Orion seats to anyone.

    Remember MKT101 – Price is what you sell something for, cost is what it takes to produce it.

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