On Feb 2, 8:21*am, "Jeff Findley" wrote:
"Fred J. McCall" wrote in messagenews:muigm5tt3t3b071d5m3ftm3sn2nusd03sh@4ax .com...

"Jeff Findley" wrote:

:
:We've heard the Administration's proposed budget, but that does not mean
:that Congress and the Senate have to roll over and accept it. *I suspect
:that there will be some sort of compromise to help retain jobs in the
:districts which are hit hardest by the loss of the shuttle program.
:

In other words, instead of a space program we'll get a jobs program.
All the intellectual talent will be let go and the union folks will be
retained to spend money to no purpose.

I certainly wouldn't like to see a shuttle derived launch vehicle for this
very reason, but I think it's entirely possible that the Congress and the
Senate will want their NASA jobs program to continue in their districts.

:I expect Congress and the Senate to fight to keep Orion (perhaps not with
:exactly the same specs it would have needed to fly on Ares I and perform
a
:lunar mission) as well as possibly something like an Ares V Lite or
DIRECT's
:Jupiter. *Something with SRB's,
:

I'm against it. *People on solids should automatically be recognized
as a bad idea.

Also agreed, but I'm talking about politics. *I don't know how or why, but
ATK seems to be a powerful political force, when compared to the relative
size of the government contracts it gets.

:One
:trick which could be used would be to compromise by calling them both
:"commercial", perhaps even letting the contractors take over the bulk of
the
:development work.
:

Uh, don't contractors already do that? *They just do it under NASA
direction.

So how would this be different?

It wouldn't be much different, especially if a "commercial" shuttle derived
launch vehicle is being launched from NASA facilities at KSC.

I hope that the Administration gets its way, but I'm not sure how much
political capitol, if any, they would be willing to spend on this effort.
Space, after all, just isn't *that* important. *It's not *that* many
billions of dollars in the federal budget. *This is why I suspect some sort
of compromise will happen and NASA will get to keep some of its government
design bureau pork in the form of Orion and perhaps a shuttle derived HLV to
launch it.

Jeff
--
"Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese" - Deteriorata - National
Lampoon

Which is very likely, meaning Michoud, Marshall, and KSC won't lose
that many jobs-remember that this is an election year, and that will
be important. Even the Augustine Commission reccommended a government
vehicle as a hedge against failure to deliver by commercial providers,
and that is something Congress may very well insist on. And frankly,
until these commercial providers put meat on the table as regards to
their promises, count me as as a skeptic.