14 DAY TRIAL // In a letter sent to four congressional subcommittees, representatives of the Planetary Society call for new space exploration plans to be drawn up for NASA and the United States.
The group is not satisfied with the existing plans, and with the fact that some congressmen do not agree with the approach to space exploration proposed by US President Barack Obama.
The Planetary Society is a non-profit organization, whose state purpose is to “inspire the people of Earth to explore other worlds, understand our own, and seek life elsewhere.”
It was founded by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman, and one of its main objectives today is to act as a lobby group, in an attempt to influence NASA's future plans.
The Society is at this point displeased with the fact that a newly-approved congressional bill cuts fundings for the private spaceflight industry, from $6 billion over 5 years, as Obama proposed, to a lot less.
And it stands to reason why they are “upset,” considering that one of the most notable members of the Society is PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX).
His company is developing the Falcon 9 delivery system, which, together with the Dragon space capsule, was touted as one of the primary beneficiaries of the NASA funds.
But congress did not approve of this spending, and instead reoriented the money to the development of a new heavy0lift delivery system, which is to be ready by 2015. The document also proposes a new space shuttle mission, beyond Endeavor's last planned flight, in February 2011.
“We are concerned about omissions and a lack of coherence in the four committees' versions of this bill,” Planetary Society members wrote in their letter.
“The bills reject the President's new plan, as well as the old Constellation plan, and instead come up with a patchwork of proposals,” explains Society executive director Louis Friedman, quoted by Space.
The letter went on to ask each senators and House representative that had anything to do with the new bill to step back, withdraw their support, and call for a rethinking of the entire US plan for space exploration.
Under the 2011 budget proposal Obama developed, Project Constellation – including the ARES rockets and the Orion capsule – would be canceled. But some officials view this as a blow to US national security, and to the country's supremacy in space.
This is why numerous congressmen, especially those in states that house NASA centers involved in Constellation, objected to the plans Obama and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden support.