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5 comments

1 Shiplord Kirel  Apr 29, 2014 10:31:03am

Now, where are all those geniuses who confidently asserted that we could depend on the Russians while we took our time reviving our own human spaceflight capability?

Incidentally, the inimitable Matt Drudge headlined this as “RUSSIA THREATENS ASTRONAUTS OVER SANCTIONS,” as though Putinite cosmo-thugs are about to pitch our guys out the airlock. The scope, reach, and diversity of Putin’s irregulars and militias are truly impressive but I don’t think he has gotten one of his “plausibly deniable” gangs onto the Space Station yet.

2 Rocky-in-Connecticut  Apr 29, 2014 11:09:58am

I thought the Private Sector and its ability to be “better and more efficient” than the government-run NASA spacecraft and was supposed to be the American model going forward. We have been waiting years and years now for the private sector to offer US astronauts a means to outer space. It hasn’t happened.

And there are no plans for any American program for manned space except for 2021 or so when the NASA Orion program finally gets up and running for lunar and Mars missions.

What this is proving is that government-run solutions to certain problems exist, and work better in some cases than private sector solutions. The US abandonment of manned space transport is one big mistake President Obama did doing away with Constellation. That program was indeed a cesspit of crony corruption under GW Bush but at least it could have been cleaned up and moved forward as a stop-gap to Orion.

3 Shiplord Kirel  Apr 29, 2014 11:13:35am

One immediate response would be to authorize NASA administrator Charles Bolden to fast-track the human flight certification of the SpaceX Dragon vehicle. This “man rating” process is an incredible thicket of red tape and convoluted procedures having little or nothing to do with safety and reliability and everything to do with cost padding and bureaucratic empire building. The Dragon has made 4 supply trips to the ISS and the last one is still berthed there right now. Each one of these could have carried human beings safely and in greater comfort than the archaic Russian Soyuz vehicle that is our only current means of access.

4 Shiplord Kirel  Apr 29, 2014 11:33:18am

re: #2 Rocky-in-Connecticut

I thought the Private Sector and its ability to be “better and more efficient” than the government-run NASA spacecraft and was supposed to be the American model going forward. We have been waiting years and years now for the private sector to offer US astronauts a means to outer space. It hasn’t happened.

And there are no plans for any American program for manned space except for 2021 or so when the NASA Orion program finally gets up and running for lunar and Mars missions.

What this is proving is that government-run solutions to certain problems exist, and work better in some cases than private sector solutions. The US abandonment of manned space transport is one big mistake President Obama did doing away with Constellation. That program was indeed a cesspit of crony corruption under GW Bush but at least it could have been cleaned up and moved forward as a stop-gap to Orion.

Bullshit. Dragon is ready now. As with its ISS supply missions, crewed missions would operate under NASA contract and supervision. This isn’t about private vs. public. That is a false dichotomy that serves only to obscure the real issues. The Shuttle and Apollo were also built by contractors and to some extent operated by them under contract, as Constellation would have been.
Two things stand in the way of Dragon’s certification: NASA bureaucracy and the crony capitalism of the profiteering legacy contractors. The latter use their unparalleled political influence to hamper and vilify everything SpaceX does. They are terrified of any threat to the obscene profits they make from their 50 year monopoly. They can’t offer a manned vehicle from their collection of Russian hardware and antique American technology and they want to make sure nobody shows them up for it.
Finally, it is highly unlikely that Constellation would have been ready any sooner than Dragon and the cost was enormously greater.

5 Shiplord Kirel  Apr 29, 2014 12:32:05pm

Legacy contractor Boeing has so far received $550 million from NASA to continue development of its CST-100 manned capsule. This would approximately duplicate Dragon’s existing capabilities. Flight status is several years away however and Cthulhu only knows how much it will cost.

The Space industrial complex works a lot like the military industrial complex, and is a junior partner in many way. It is dominated by a few long established contractors, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, and Northrop-Grumman. Boeing and Martin sold their first aircraft to the government in 1917, Lockheed in 1927. Northrop is the baby of the group, having been incorporated in 1939. All have been involved in spaceflight contracts since the dawn of the space age.
As in the military industrial complex, newcomers and upstarts are not welcome, no matter how good their ideas are, or what resources they might have. The legacy contractors use the Congress-critters they own and the bureaucrats they have in their pockets to stamp any new competition. They are able to do this because, among other things, they can more reliably offer lucrative employment and consulting positions to their cronies once the latter have left federal service.

In short, SpaceX has the goods, Boeing et al has the Congressmen and bureaucrats.


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