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The debate over NASA’s future continues… for your SpacePod for July 19, 2010.

Late last week the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee had unanimously approved a new NASA Authorization Act of 2010. Keep in mind that this is not yet law which means it could all change yet again. The bill modifies much of what the Obama administration had proposed for NASA

OK, so we have a radical departure of what the White House had proposed for Fiscal Year 2011. What does that actually mean

So it sounds like we’re not to continue with Ares I or Ares V but we will immediately move to new rocket development. This could end up to be a modified version of the Ares V vehicle or for all we know NASA will decide on a Jupiter DIRECT configuration to utilize old Space Shuttle components Or maybe something completely different. At this time we really have no idea how NASA will proceed other than to work within the conditions of the bill. So what restrictions does NASA have to work under for their new rocket design?

Well that’s interesting. Experts in Utah have had written in to the bill one of the most controversial parts of the shuttle remain: the solid rocket fuel. That’s not to say that the statements are untrue or that solid fuel can’t play a pivotal role, but even from the beginning of the STS program solid fuel has been debated and directly led to the loss of Space Shuttle Challenger. Solid fuel is one of the most dangerous if not *the* most dangerous components of the Space Shuttle system, and that extreme danger will remain for the next generation NASA rocket. Assuming of course that this is signed in to law.

One item that wasn’t really a surprise was adding an additional space shuttle flight in the form of STS-135

While Senator Nelson doesn’t come right out and say it, he is talking about Space Shuttle Atlantis which is the Launch On Need vehicle for the current final slated mission of STS-134. That means that if this bill passes, the most powerful, charismatic, energetic and dynamic shuttle ever built would be the one to take the Space Shuttle Program in to the sunset.

Of course everything is still up in the air. The bill still needs the approval of the full senate, it has to reconcile with legislation from the house and of course President Obama needs to agree with it as well. However, given it’s full bi-partisan support it seems like a much better starting place than Obama’s proposed Fiscal Year 2011 plan. All of this is moot if we don’t have the money to fund the program though.

We’ll see how well this all works out. Let us not forget that the Constellation program was originally designed to use off-the-shelf shuttle components to be faster, cheaper and safer than what we have today. 7 years later, billions of dollars spent and we have a vehicle that was none of those things.

Only time will tell. Before we close, I think it’s important to understand the meaning behind the bill. Why did the committee not like the Fiscal Year 2011 plan and want to change it? What is the point and what was the vision behind their new plan? To get the big picture, you can watch the full press conference by going to the URL at the bottom of your screen.

Remember to keep the conversation going. Not just in the comments on Spacevidcast and YouTube but at the office, around the water cooler. Get people excited and engaged with space again. Sometimes that starts with a simple comment about the space shuttle retiring. The next natural question is, what will replace it. How will you answer that question?