The House Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday, May 4 at 10 AM in room H-309 Capitol. On deck will be Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Dr. John to testify on the President’s FY 2012 Budget request. It’s also possible that Dr. Holdren, one of the Gang of Four, will also be asked about the nation’s space program and efforts of some within the Administration to slow-roll the HSF program, as enacted by Congress.
I hope the comittee holds their feet to the fire! There is a reason that they are slow-rolling the HSF program. I believe they have a vested interest in the financial success of several commercial space companies. We have spent the last two years listening to the lofty language of the commercial world, as they proclaim the death of Constellation and assert themselves as the hope of the future. It seems that any government contractor has been targeted as the enemy in this “new regime”. I still wonder where we would be today if NASA had held steadfast and Obama had kept Constellation alive. This week, some preliminary reports of what the HSF plan would look like were out on the web and immediately, the newspace lobby was clamoring for their viewers to write their congressmen to stop a single source contract for HSF. Are these people actually interested in advancing space exploration? I wonder as they continue trying to sideline HSF and the contractors that have built the shuttle (they seem to articularly hate ATK). I don’t get it, but I will be happy to see NASA go ahead and fulfill their ordered mandate.
Good points. Members of Congress are aware of efforts by NASA’s senior-most leadership to slow-roll Orion and the SLS whether by getting the centers to fight over who does what, by endlessly asking questions the goal of which is not enlightenment but running the clock, or by shaving money from either program to pay for facilities neither will use for years.
Advocates in the space exploration community has been space exploration’s own worst enemy for years by insisting that the perfect be the enemy of the good.