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.

Ares I-X launch delayed

Thrust Oscillation concerns worsen

Last month, Sentinel Space Editor Robert Block reported on the likelihood that the first test flight of the Ares I-X -- a mockup of the Ares I intended ot test performance of the solid-fuel first stage -- would be delayed past its scheduled date of Aug. 30. Officially, he reported, NASA was holding to the August date for liftoff at Kennedy Space Center but that September was "more likely."

Now comes the officially revised date, courtesy of a memo from Johnson Space Center's Robert Ess, the Ares I-X mission manager: Oct. 31.

"This is still a very aggressive schedule and requires a lot of tasks to complete on or before their planned dates," Ess wrote in a memo obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

And there's word from Marshall Space Flight Center, where Ares I is being designed, that engineers there are continuing to wrestle with the issue of "thrust oscillation." A blog post by Dan Kanigan, a public information officer at Marshall, explains the problem this way:

"The vibration that is produced by the burning of the solid rocket propellant in the first stage booster is called thrust oscillation. These vibrations -- or oscillations -- come in the form of waves, which travel up and down the length of the rocket like a musical note through an organ pipe. One of the biggest challenges in any rocket design is developing avionics (aviation electronics) that can function in this vibrating environment."

Kanigan confirms that the Air Force's 45th Space Wing’s Range Safety team remains concerned, As Block also reported, that thrust oscillation will vibrate Ares I so badly that it will disable both the Thrust Vector Control system that steers the rocket and the Flight Termination System that would be used to blow it up if the rocket veered of course.

Read The Write Stuff posting HERE.

Space Florida's "launchpad to nowhere"

Orlando Sentinel staff writers Robert Block and Mark K. Matthews have opened up with both barrels with a summary showing how some things are more easily overlooked when state revenues are always on the increase and how quickly state-incentives-driven enterprises can become exposed luxuries when belts eventually tighten.

Space Florida "has spent more than $2 million of state taxpayer money during the past six months on the early stages of a $60 million launchpad here that the agency can't find the money to finish and which so far no rocket company is committed to use."

"Despite intense lobbying and marketing efforts, the state's space-development agency has so far been unable to nail down its business case for the launchpad to nowhere which Space Florida promised would "entice a multitude of commercial space companies" to Brevard County, offsetting thousands of expected job losses when the U.S. space shuttle is mothballed next year."

Like NASA, even barrels of red-ink printed federal 'stimulus' dollars can find no few friends in Washington or Tallahassee. "All three of Florida's top space advocates in Washington — Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Sen. Mel Martinez, both of Orlando, and Democratic Rep. Suzanne Kosmas of New Smyrna Beach — recently turned down Space Florida's request for $5 million in federal money to help build its complex, install fences, and connect water and electricity to the pad."

"Among the reasons for the rejections: Space Florida's controversial reputation. The agency has had to fend off accusations that it stole a client's ideas for a space-tourism project and gave them to a competitor. Critics in Tallahassee have also blasted it for what they describe as poor management and business decisions."

"The Governor's Office just completed an investigation of one of the agency's groundbreaking deals — for a space-tourism training program — after the Orlando Sentinel disclosed that a state employee who had worked on the contract resigned to go to work for the clinic that won it. That probe found that the whole endeavor had been tainted by apparent breaches of state ethics laws."

Recommended Read: HERE.