We’re starting to see the programmatic consequences of NASA’s political inability to get the Shuttle/ISS monkey off its back. I was reading the final Call For Improvement from NASA on the CEV program, that just came out this week, and noted that one of the biggest changes in it from the draft that came out late last year was that the word “methane” had been excised from it, whereas in the draft, it had been baselined. Apparently, NASA doesn’t have the funds to pursue this propulsion technology, despite its potential for improved safety, reduced operational costs, and extensibility to eventual Mars (and Near-Earth Object) missions.

The Shuttle and ISS have both been programmatic disasters exactly because of decisions made early in their development to skip key technologies that could have dramatically reduced down-stream costs, and (as seems to be inevitable with a space program funded on an annual basis by a Congress that’s focused on the next election), we’re apparently following the same path with CEV.

NASA Watch has more on this subject, as does Clark Lindsey:

The fundamental criticism of the Exploration program that has come from the alt.space community is that the program as currently designed will make little progress towards development of a sustainable, long-term, in-space infrastructure. This decision further pushes the program towards “flags and footprints” rather than “return to stay” or “steppingstone to Mars.”