Space Vision: A Whole Lot of Nothing

There are a lot of rumors floating about what President Obama will opt to do with NASA and manned spaceflight. Much of this is based on the report Obama received from the Review of Human Spaceflight Plans Committee (which I discussed in: Quick Thoughts on the US Spaceflight Report). While some of the rumors are doubtless based on administration “trial balloons”, I do think a paradigm shift is definitely in the offing.

The main theme of the speculation is that, basically, Obama will scrap NASA’s manned spaceflight projects, both planned and extant, in favor of having the private sector do it. If true, how massively bone-headed is this? The private sector has sent one–ONE–airship to the fringes of space in a suborbital flight. Let me say that again: ONE. In the nearly six years that have followed, nothing. Again, let me repeat: NOTHING. And this is manned flight…never mind unmanned. Yeah, people forget that the private sector hasn’t done much in the way of unmanned flight, either. They pretty much hitch rides on government space vehicles (NASA [USA], PKA [Russia], ESA [Europe]).

At a minimum, Obama should recommend a major technology transfer from NASA to one or two private companies who can build from what’s available instead of from scratch. There should be a transition and not a sudden cut-off. Let the private sector take Ares and finish it. Or, have a lot of NASA’s engineers available for private-sector development–which will likely happen as NASA loses a major part of its mission.

All this being said, I don’t have a fundamental problem with private-sector spaceflight or transport systems. I’d love it to succeed. I think it might open things up a bit if we’re willing to accept the consequences of the learning curve (rockets blow up, sometimes). The thing is, space is difficult. It doesn’t care what your budget is or what your timetable may be. Innovation keeps its own counsel. Space is unforgiving and deadly. We need ALL our resources to do it well, public and private.

This is just launch vehicles I’ve been talking about. I haven’t even touched on the ISS, the Moon, or other destinations.

What makes me saddest is the lack of will and the lack of vision. Forty years ago, the US was flying to the moon and walking on it. It took balls. If the rumors are true, then Obama’s budget cuts will cut them off and put them on a bottle on a shelf. We’ll gaze longingly at them as we welcome to the era of Chinese space supremacy.

That said, there are many in Congress from California, Florida, Texas, Maryland, and other states that might have other ideas.