NASA Faces Abrupt Opposition in Reshaping Its Plans

When rumors of the Obama Administration's intentions of shutting down Project Constellation first appeared, many representatives vowed not to let that happen, no matter what. They are now sticking to their word, as evidenced by the recent congressional committee hearings, which saw the NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden, and the White House Science Adviser, John Holdren, taking a lot of heat for their budget proposals. Congressmen from both parties did not bother to veil their disapproval of the planned course of action, which would see the space agency relinquish its own space project in order to place the faith of US manned spaceflights in the hands of private companies.

The two hearings were organized by the White House Committee on Science and Technology, and Holdren was the one who's had it worst off. Panel members accused him of presenting proposals that were lacking specific details, and that threatened the supremacy the United States held in space at that moment. The representatives argued that the changes would put thousands out of their jobs, and noticed that the arguments the Science Advisor presented were largely based on the conclusions of the presidential panel that investigated NASA's possible courses of action the past year. The investigators were then led by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine.

Some officials fear that placing all manned spaceflight capabilities in the hands of private entrepreneurs could result in these particular companies becoming “too important to fail.” This may require that the federal government provide bailout money to these organizations, which is not something representatives are too willing to consider at this point. Another one of the main objections that committee members presented was the lack of clear objectives that the new budget brought with it. Other than surrendering the first role in space exploration to other nations, the plan sets no new specific targets to work for.

The NASA Administrator said during one of these hearings that Mars was the ultimate space-exploration objective, but highlighted that, even with an endless supply of money, reaching the Red Planet with an astronaut crew would be impossible for the next ten years or so. But some members of the committees said that the plan was “ill-conceived,” and that they would never agree with cutting jobs and endangering national security just for the sake of promoting innovation in the private industry. They argue that NASA has already produced significant innovation for Project Constellation, which features many technologies that have yet to be invented.