From Space News, Senate Prescribed Heavy lifter Looks Like Ares 5
“Senate legislation authorizing $58 billion for NASA over the next three years directs the agency to build a heavy-lift rocket that bears a strong resemblance to the Ares 5 launcher that U.S. President Barack Obama seeks to abandon.”
AmericaSpace Note: All we can do with this news is…breath a big sigh of relief. Compared with the launcher notions offered by others and especially the nebulous offerings under the White House idea of outsourcing our nation’s human space flight program, this is really good news.
With passage of the Senate version of the 2010 NASA Authorization Act expressing the sense of the Senate, the tide and momentum of the battle to stop the outsourcing of our nation’s human space flight program has clearly shifted towards preserving Constellation in large part. But it’s important to remember that the battle to save our nation’s human space flight program is not yet over. That will not happen until the President signs whatever version of the NASA Authorization Act that is finally enacted by Congress. Until then, the Champagne stays on ice.
2 Years from now it will be clear that MSFC will screw this rocket up just as they have screwed up everything else they have tried to do for the past 20 years. Schedules will slip, performance will drop, and cost swill rise. They’ll be calling this rocket “Shelby’s Folly” and you will look like a fool for having supported it.
Of course you won’t post this comment, will you? You just want people to agree with you – not dispute what you post.
No, Alexi, of course we will approve your post, or anyone else’s, that isn’t pushing misinformation. And only time will tell if this effort by Marshall does become “Shelby’s Folly”.