14 DAY TRIAL // Lori Garver, the Deputy Administrator at NASA, said during the NewSpace 2011 conference that the American space agency will continue to support the private spaceflight industry despite the hard time NASA itself is going through.
The meeting – held on July 28, in Mountain View, California – was organized by the Space Frontier Foundation, and was attended by officials from both the government and the space industry.
NASA is already involved in programs to support companies developing rockets and spacecraft for reaching low-Earth orbit and beyond. Right now, the ones that are working towards creating vehicles capable of reaching the International Space Station (ISS) have priority.
Lately, as the federal budget is becoming increasingly stable, many voices in Congress and in the White House are calling for freezing the budget, and cutting back costs. Under these circumstances, private companies are understandably concerned that they will be left without support.
But Garver told the meeting that the budget woes will not prevent the space agency from honoring the commitments it made in its contracts. She added that officials are going out of their way to ensure that collaboration with the private sector is constantly boosted, Space reports.
During these difficult time, certain centers the agency operates need to change the way they do things altogether. The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is the first example that springs to mind. For many decades, the majority of the work conducted here has relied on government funding.
Now that the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) has been shut down, the facility will need to figure out new ways of turning itself into an attractive spaceport, whose facilities private companies can use to launch their own rockets to space.
“It’s a huge challenge. Nobody likes change. […] But the bottom line is we need the capability to get crews to the International Space Station without having to rely on our Russian partners,” KSC Director Robert Cabana explained.
“So we are putting infrastructure in place to support and enable those commercial operations as well as NASA's heavy-lift exploration program. I really believe we are at a turning point. If we persevere through this we are going to be successful. We don't have any other choice,” he added.
At this point, an important issue is rising at NASA, the way in which funds are accessed and allotted. There are various ways in which money can be obtained, but the new budget proposals would sever many of these paths.
As such, private companies may have to be put in a situation where they need to hire accountants and lawyers to keep track of the demands, make personnel use time cards, and other cultural shifts. NASA officials say that this would make the workforce less flexible, and less able to complete its tasks quickly.