Orion budget embargoed, 600 jobs cut

The first Lunar Test capsule for people since Project Apollo has just been welded into shape. This work finishes the structural framework of the pioneer Orion crew cabin – known as the Ground Test Article – or GTA, by a Lockheed Martin contractor team toiling away at the historic NASA-owned Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans [NLSI/Ken Kremer].

Ken Kremer

SpaceRef.com

Lockheed Martin and other contractors working on NASA's endangered Constellation program now have no choice but to delay or halt forward progress on major aspects of the 'Return to the Moon' program and that will quickly cause numerous jobs cuts rippling across the US.

These actions are a direct result of new budget and contract guidance from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden with regard to contract termination liabilities for Project Constellation if the project is cancelled. This could effectively kill the moon program as desired by the Obama Administration, despite a Congressional legislative ban on changing or cancelling Constellation without the agreement of Congress.

"The impact of termination liability on the contract has necessitated a 20 percent reduction across the program within Lockheed Martin as well as our subcontractors and suppliers", says Cleon Lacefield, Lockheed Martin vice president and Orion program manager. Lacefield told me that "Orion procurements are being reduced to allow work to continue within the budget limitations and about 600 positions among the Lockheed Martin and subcontractor workforce are being moved off of the program to adjust staffing needs."

These cutbacks come directly on the heels of Lockheed Martin just completing the structural framework of the first Lunar Orion test capsule at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans as reported in my illustrated Orion feature story on June 7 here.

Bolden outlined the job and budget issues in stark terms in a June 9 memo to the chairs of the key Congressional committees that have NASA oversight.

The issue is who is liable to pay for the costs of terminating NASA contracts; NASA or the contractors. Bolden states that according to the "Anti-Deficiency Act" the contractors must now set aside funds to cover the termination liability costs in case the contract is cancelled.

NASA estimates the termination liability costs this year to be almost $1 Billion and must be accounted for before the end of the fiscal year in September 2010.

Read the full article, HERE.

Will NASA’s embrace kill NewSpace?

A notional scene showing the besieged Constellation lunar lander Altair, composed of Apollo, LRO, Kaguya & Google Earth data to create an "accurate-looking" scene of a landing near the wrinkle ridges and ghost craters of southern Mare Crisium. The site is among fifty Constellation "Regions of Interest."

Taylor Dinerman
The Space Review

Whatever her motives were, when Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) destroyed the George H.W. Bush Space Exploration Initiative in 1992, she demonstrated how a single powerful senator could wreck any president’s proposals, especially on a seemingly marginal issue like civil space policy. She went through the NASA budget and zeroed out anything that even remotely resembled funding for SEI. It took NASA many years to recover from those drastic cuts to the human space exploration technology program.

The resentment aimed at SEI is nothing compared to what the NewSpace industry now faces on Capitol Hill. The cancellation of the Constellation program proposed in the 2011 budget is facing a bipartisan firestorm in Congress. It is doubtful that the President will want to make a special effort to support the new NASA program. His threat to veto the 2010 defense budget if it included money for the alternative F-35 engine turned out to be empty. The thousands of jobs and the irreplaceable expertise that this new plan throws away are far more important to the members of Congress, especially in the current economic climate, than are the arguments and promises from the new team at NASA.

In spite of its flaws—and if anyone says there is such a thing as a flawless government program ask them what they’ve been smoking—Constellation balanced the technological, political, and legal realities of today’s government environment. The new program is the product of a philosophy that, while it may be promising in the very long term, is simply not ready for prime time.

If the Moon program could be described as belonging to the 20th century, the NewSpace industry is beginning to look as if they belong to the 18th century. Like French courtiers wandering the halls of Versailles looking for a favor from the King, individuals who used to be regarded as brave entrepreneurs will now haunt the corridors of power looking for a subsidy or an earmark. They will prove their technical expertise by writing proposals that are perfectly adapted to the prevailing bureaucratic winds. It may be good business, but it does not have much to do with 21st century market capitalism.

Now that the NewSpace industry is in a direct fight with the powerful members of Congress they may find that in spite of support from NASA’s leadership, they lack the political strength overcome the opposition. If the men and women who sit on the appropriations committees feel their interests and even their political survival are threatened, they will strike back, and strike back hard.

Read the full article, HERE.

House Members decry disassembly of Constellation, violates of 2010 budget language

Robert Block
The Write Stuff
Orlando Sentinel

A group of 27 members of Congress, mainly Republican representatives from Alabama and Texas, two states with major NASA centers, wrote a letter Friday to NASA chief Charlie Bolden, demanding that he agree to cease any activity that could be construed as damaging to the Constellation moon program.

Among the signatures were those of Reps. Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) and Suzanne Kosmas (D-New Smyrna Beach) who both represent Kennedy Space Center workers.

In the four page letter, made available to the Orlando Sentinel, the members said they were disturbed by reports that NASA was working behind the scenes to turn off contracts for Constellation’s Ares I rocket and Orion capsule in violation of Congressional wishes.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama released his 2011 budget which would scrap the troubled space program to return astronauts to the moon. The new budget supports a new technology development program and would help private companies develop the capability to fly astronauts to the International Space Station which would operate until at least 2020.

“We have become aware of the formation by NASA Headquarters of at least five “tiger teams,” the job of which is to shut down Constellation and to transition to the new program,” the letter said.

It also said that it understands NASA has given “verbal” instructions to directors of the agency space centers to close down the program, as well as put a contract on hold and planned to “set aside” money supposed to be spent on Ares and Orion.

Last year, lawmakers prohibited NASA from canceling any Constellation programs this year and starting new ones in their place unless the cuts were approved by Congress. The language inserted in the Consolidated Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2010 expressly prohibits the “termination or elimination of any program, project or activity of the architecture for the Constellation program."

Read the Post HERE.

Mollohan's cuts passed by the House

Full House votes to keep $700 million cut in NASA funding

President Harry S Truman said of Washington, "if you want a friend in this town, buy a dog."

His predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt said of Washington, "never make the mistake of thinking anything here happens by accident.

Which make poignant the fact while NASA at large was distracted by the logistical and mechanical concerns of launching Endeavour, and STS-127, not long after Trans Lunar Injection for LRO & LCROSS, even as the agency was celebrating "America's return to the Moon", the U.S. House voted 259-157 to cut $700 million from its budget, over the objections of President Obama.

That plan now heads to the Senate. All U.S. spending plans must begin in the House, where the U.S. Constitution seats "the power of the purse." The House has this singular privilege because, Thomas Jefferson wrote, it is the body closest to the People, its entire membership must be elected every two years.

Mark Matthews of the Orlando Sentinel's The Write Stuff, wrote, "NASA still would receive about $18.2 billion under the proposal, but the lawmaker who oversees NASA spending wanted to cut about $670 million from an earlier request by the White House for the agency's exploration budget until a new independent panel -- asked for by the Obama administration -- concludes its review of NASA’s post-shuttle plans.

“It is a pause, a time-out, to allow the president to establish his vision for human space exploration and to commit to realistic future funding levels to realize this vision,” according to an earlier memo written by U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan, the West Virginia Democrat who chairs the appropriations subcommittee of Commerce, Justice and Science.

The White House opposed the House action in a memo earlier this week. (pdf)

“The Administration is concerned with the reduction of $670 million from the President's FY 2010 request for Exploration Systems. This large reduction would likely cause major negative impacts to any options that may emerge from the ongoing blue ribbon review of U.S. human space flight plans,” according to a memo released by the Office of Management and Budget, which reports to the president.

The NASA cuts were included as part of a much broader bill that outlined about $64 billion in congressional spending on the Department of Justice, NASA, NOAA and several other government agencies, according to budget documents released before the floor debate.

Among those who opposed the bill was U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, a Florida Democrat who represents the Kennedy Space Center.

“These cuts will cause years of delays and put at risk the highly skilled workforce that is critical to Central Florida’s economy and that may not be easily reassembled for future programs,” said Kosmas in a statement.

She was one of eight Democrats to oppose the proposal.

And, Matthews rightly points out, "Passage in the House, however, does not guarantee the cuts become law. NASA has several defenders in the Senate, including U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, (D-Florida), and even Mollohan left open the possibility of restoring funding once the Augustine panel presents its report.

At a Thursday today of the House subcommittee of Space and Aeronautics, U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, (R-Texas), said he had been assured by congressional leaders that the funding would be returned once the Augustine panel was done.

“They promised us that they would work to restore that funding, pending the decision of the Augustine commission,” he said.

The 2010 fiscal year begins October 1, which also marks the beginning of the last year former President Bush and President Obama agree will be the final one for the Space Shuttle system.

Retiring the Shuttle involves more than blocking the Orbiter wheels and setting tie downs, of course. It means the dissolution of a unified team skillset, what has already begun, and even environmental impact statements.

Meanwhile, writing in a guest column for Florida Today, Robert Hopkins, former chief of strategic communications at NASA, called H.R. 2847 a "shortsighted, reckless plan."

"Congressional appropriators are moving to dial back funding for our nation’s space program. Specifically, legislators have called for a “time out” in exploration, cutting funding by $670 million for fiscal year 2010.

"With the shuttle due to retire by 2010, for the first time in over 28 years, the U.S. will have no capability to transport humans into space. We will be reliant on the Russians to ferry our astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station until a replacement is completed.

"There are significant economic and international implications."

Read Hopkins Column HERE.