FAA Conf. Wed Afternoon, pt. 1 - notes

Panel | Congressional Staff Perspectives
Mike Gold, Bigelow Aerospace (Moderator)
Ann Zulkosky, Senior Professional Staff, U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science and Space
Jeff Bingham, Minority Staff Director, U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science and Space
Tony Detora, Senior Policy Advisor, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48)
Anne Nelson, Former Senior Legislative Aide, Rep. John Olver (MA-01) (retired)

• Mike Gold -ntroduces panel
• Zulkosky:
  • Describes recent authorization acts and commercialization aspects
  • 2010 authorized more money for commercial trans than generally appreciated
  • In next authorization, resources will be a big issue
  • orbital vs suborbital allocations
• Bingham
  • Commerce dept always in support of space commercialization
  • 2005 act focused on ISS commercialization
  • Commercialization depends heavily on ISS
  • Consistently supported both crew and cargo
  • Discussed Wolf/Hutchison push to down-select to one company
  • Goal was to match funding to project needs
  • Says NASA needs both SLS/Orion and commercial trans
  • Wanted to keep ISS resources open for ISS science beyond just NASA R&D.
  • Flatline budget from OMB is what forces competition between SLS and commercial trans
• Detora
  • Expects next authorization to be less contentious than 2010
  • Doesn't expect any big changes in allocations
• Nelson
  • Describes appropriation process
  • How cuts are distributed will be difficult
• Gold
  • Bigelow supports both SLS and commercial trans
  • What about the WSJ article advocating SLS cancelation?
• Bingham
  • Not an either/or situation.
  • Need to provide enough money for a vibrant space program
  • Biggest success of past 10 years was completion of ISS
  • Biggest failure was absence of leadership
• Detora
  • Not building the payloads for the SLS
  • Timelines get pushed out, costs go up
  • Don't see an exploration path with SLS with the available funding expected
• Bingham
  • 1989 space exploration initiative offered a complete long term plan but the huge pricetag made it DOA
  • Avoided long term plan with the SLS and instead focused on getting the capability first.
  • If all the mission costs had been included then the large price tag would have killed it.
• Q&A:
• When would decision on extension of ISS be made?
  • Zulkosky - NASA currently doing the trades on the extension.
  • Bingham - Results of next 5 years will have a big impact on extension decision. 
  • - Bigelow stations could come in and create a neighborhood of stations
  • Detora - LEO work has been going on for 50 years and expect NASA to continue
• Does Senate or House committees have any plans to assist companies like Planetary Resources that are planning to develop space commerce? e.g. Zero g, zero tax
  • Detora - Only at a staff level. No legislation planned.
• Gold - Limitations on liability at the federal level?
  • Zulkosky - in next act may address such issues for both suborbital and orbital

Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, gave a very short speech

• Lauds progress in commercial space transporation such as the SpaceX missions to the ISS
• Space trans could one day be as routine as air travel
• Will support commercial sector
• Safety is the number one priority--

Comments (3)

D. Messier

Bingham seems unable to admit the obvious: Congress has been unwilling to prioritize properly on human spaceflight. The most important thing is getting us back into LEO and freeing us from dependence on the Russians. Instead, Congress has given top priority to SLS and Orion. it has prioritized jobs over NASA's programmatic requirements. Again.

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6th February 2013 7:28pm

Rand Simberg

In other words, actually doing things in space isn't as high a priority as safety. Someone should write a book about that.

I sure won't miss Ray LaHood.

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6th February 2013 12:46pm

Patrick

Good grief. No one (except Tony Detora) can bring themselves to acknowledge reality--that a decade and $20B spent on SLS will mean a decade and $20B LOST for missions and payloads?

Big sigh.

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6th February 2013 12:15pm

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