To the Editor

To the editor,

When the 2011 federal budget proposed replacing Constellation program with a new set of program initiatives including a new lease on life for Space Station and technology development, ineffective politicians and economic development PR specialists instantly attacked Barrack Obama, claiming he was “ending human spaceflight.” The NASA team, all of whom worship space exploration and had followed the Bush’s “Vision” with uncritical budget hopes, was shocked that Obama couldn’t pay unending huge balloon payments year after year to keep the cash-starved Constellation program afloat.

Instead, Obama listened to the blue ribbon Augustine panel to design an approach for NASA that respected very real budget limitations and still plot a practical course to leap past old approaches to old space destinations. While paid suits play Chicken Little, with exaggerations and lies claiming Obama is ending human spaceflight, space community frustration began turning to anger.

Like the national economy left in the ditch by Bush, NASA and Constellation were running on fumes when Obama was inaugurated. The NASA space team was working so hard on Shuttle, Station and Constellation, they didn’t have time figure out the dilemma until after local GOP office holders and corporate flaks started a campaign of lies. Let’s step back a moment and consider the reality of this situation.

Bush proposed the new exploration program in 2004 to stimulate his re-election campaign in big states including Texas, Florida and California. He then basically ignored the program, failing to fund it adequately despite ending other major human spaceflight programs.

The Bush administration insisted on cancelling the Shuttle program, creating the 6-7 year gap in US human access to space, which left the US beholding to Russia to access our Space Station. Space Station was headed for early retirement an extremely short time after completion in the Bush plans. And major NASA science and robotic programs were scrapped for seed money to start the program. These were all Bush administration decisions to end or slash major NASA programs to fund Constellation.

Bush failed to support his own initially proposed budgets for Constellation. The percent of federal discretionary funds for NASA fell from .7% to .4% during the Bush years. Bush conveniently (for himself) designed a Constellation funding plan to require huge increases in budget (think balloon payments) after he left office – a little present for the next president.

As the new president faced the many problems left by Bush, he asked Norm Augustine to analyze the future of human spaceflight. Augustine’s committee said NASA needed an additional $3Billion each year on top of current financial plans to build the Constellation program, or about a 17% increase for NASA in years requiring a government-wide budget freeze. Stimulus funds couldn’t be used because they must be spent very quickly and then stopped cold in about one year.

Everyone agrees; Obama inherited a devastated economy. That economy created incredible barriers to starting new long-term programs anywhere in the government. Bush started the unnecessary $1 Trillion war in Iraq. The devastated US economy provided Bush an excuse to pass the $700 Billion bank buyout of 2008 and necessitated the 2009 Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NASA and the great rocket scientists there were left a Constellation program on life support.

So on January 20, 2009, Obama found a NASA with goals, programs and budgets wildly out of sync. Augustine’s analysis provided the diagnosis: a program over-promised and acutely underfunded. For human spaceflight to survive, a new approach was required. Obama’s new direction pragmatically set a new course linking budget increases of about $1 Billion per year to a flexible approach to adopt new technologies and goals. Move human exploration forward without getting caught in a decade’s long detour to old technology and old destinations.

Instead of plunging Space Station into the Pacific, Obama gave it a new lease on life, basically doubling its useful life to 2020. A full crew of astronauts is there now finally focused on science to start repaying our taxpayers for this huge investment. The new Obama budget will increase to a total of $19 Billion in 2011 and to $21 Billion in four years. Unlike Bush, Obama is actually increasing NASA’s budgets significantly. Exploration under Obama will grow from $3.5 Billion in 2009 to $3.78 in 2010 up to nearly $5.2 Billion in 2015.

A shift to commercial launch services will be like the shift from government emphasis in early programs to the Shuttle contract with United Space Alliance that helps save money for other programs like the ISS. Finding less expensive ways to access earth orbit will bring new destinations within our reach.

Ultimately, NASA’s Charlie Bolden and Congress will work out details of the new budget in consideration of Constellation’s valuable accomplishments. With a little patience, Clear Lake’s space community will find that JSC’s annual budget likely will continue around $6 Billion per year. A flexible space exploration plan will still include Constellation’s legacy, perhaps even the Orion. With the new budget and a practical approach to finding new technologies for spaceflight, eventually we’ll hear the first words from Mars no doubt including another reference to the home of human spaceflight, “Houston.”

Sincerely,

ML Hodges

Health Care Reform

Today, in Washington, there will be a summit. As always this is mostly political theater. But, the health of our nation, economic and physical, will be greatly improved by the passage of Health Care Reform. This will be done through the Reconciliation process (Only 51 votes needed, not a super majority.)

The progress that has been made so far in Health Care Reform would not have happened under a Republican president. It would not have happened under a blue-dog democrat (an electable Democrat, in common parlance.)

America can catch up with all the other industrialized nations on Earth and begin to have Universal coverage, still a far off dream, but, a little closer now.