"Matt" wrote in message
...
The headlines in other publications have gotten really crazy: "Report:
Obama May Merge NASA, Pentagon Space Programs" on Fox News. There are
even more sensational examples... none of them with a basis in
reality.

It all started with this Bloomberg item saying the Obama
administration might turn the mission of launching NASA's Orion
capsule from the planned Ares I over to "military rockets" - the Atlas
or Delta EELVs - " because military rockets may be cheaper and ready
sooner than the space agency's planned launch vehicle." Other outlets
picked up on Bloomberg and took it to the point of alleging a "merger"
without ever noticing the premise was wrong and that no merger is even
being contemplated.

The Bloomberg story as spectacularly uninformed. The Atlas and Delta
EELVs are not purely military rockets: NASA can purchase them
commercially from United Launch Alliance (ULA) any time they want.
EELVs carry commercial satellites and NASA payloads like the GOES
series. What NASA would have to pay ULA to do is build a man-rated
version, which the Pentagon has no interest in. It's also not clear
where NASA and DoD ties need to be closer: they cooperate every day on
everything from range operations to the significant military support
to shuttle launches to missions like Orbital Express and vehicles like
the X-43.


All that is true, but it misses the point. This has every aspect of a
trial balloon coming indirectly from the incoming administration.
Neal Lane is quoted and is most definitely an insider, not just
another talking head.
http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/html/lanebio.html

The point of this article seems to be that both NASA and the military
want new launchers, but we shouldn't hold our breath on getting
both Ares and some military space plane. Since national security
and economic needs will have the priority.

And if this is a trial balloon, it doesn't take much reading between
the lines to see that Ares 5 at least and the moon are already history.
And our next generation of launchers will be EELV's for now
and some new military space plane down the road.

Maybe the first true space plane...at last.

And I'm all for it, I think it's the smart thing to do. And I believe
Obama can be counted on to make intelligent decisions that
make sense.

Our future needs low cost to orbit, and it most certainly
is NOT in conventional liquid/solid fueled rockets.
If for no other reason than the pollution from the massive
numbers of flights required for significantly exploiting space
in the future.

We should be continuing on the X-33 - X-47 path to some
more advanced space plane.



Matt Bille
Freelance space writer/historian
http://mattbille.blogspot.com