NASA, SpaceX Set First Dragon Launch To ISS

On Dec 20, 3:16*pm, Alan Erskine wrote:
On 21/12/2011 5:16 AM, Matt Wiser wrote:



Total privatization is not politically possible. Like the Bobbert, if
this guy tried selling it to Congress, they'd slam the door in his
face. And if he was in a Committee room testifying, they'd laugh him
out, hold the door open for him, and he'd get a kick in the ass on the
way out.

Why?

Because, Alan, there are NO Congresscritters on record as supporting
total privatization of HSF. The only national-level politicians who
want that are both running for POTUS: Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul-and
neither of whom will be POTUS. (It'll either be Mitt Romney or Mr.
Obama gets reelected). Remember the fury over the "outsourcing" of LEO
to commercial crew that that disaster for NASA known as the FY 11
Budget that was rolled out in a botched manner on 1 Feb 10 (among a
lot of other stuff that drew Congressional fury)? Privatizing NASA
would NEVER pass Congress, period. Cut and dry, that is it.

The only Congresscritter who comes anywhere close is Rep. Dana
Rohrabacher (R-CA) who's pushing CCDev and COTS-but his motives are
not completely pu Several Commercial Space (or NerdSpace, or
ObamaSpace, call it whatever you please) outfits have facilities in
SoCal (his district includes Hawthorne), and he's likely got
constitutents who work at those firms. IF (and I do mean If) he'd been
Chair of House Sci/Tech Committee, he'd be in a strong position to
push his argument and try to influence matters. He's not, and that's
that. The key members on the committees that deal with NASA are from
"Space States", and they're the ones you have to convince. And the
Commercial Crew folks haven't done a good job of that. They only got
45% of their requested funds for FY 12, and $100 mil of that is frozen
pending NASA notifying Congress of firm exploration plans, missions,
destinations, etc.