Space Pioneer Burt Rutan Blasts NASA Plan

For other space news go to: http://www.spacetoday.net
For a list of Private Space Companies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies

That's kind of interesting, and unexpected from him. He may just not want the government money fueled competition, especially considering he's so far ahead of everyone else. Perhaps is reasoning is something less competitive. Whatever it is, he didn't elaborate, did he?

Gee, whatever happened to Comsat?

Burt ain’t no fool!

He knows a parallel path is best and that NASA needs to be out there on the frontiers!

YEAH!

GREAT ALLY IN THE BATTLE FOR NASA!

http://www.supportconstellation.com

The WSJ should let Burt do an editorial on Global Warming based on his presentation @ Oshkosh this year.

His forums on the 90's with the Clinton's @ the helm we spiced with salty language and jokes against Slick but his Brother Dick a Vietnam Fighter Pilot who's missions are still Classified was livid over the Clinton's.

...says he is "fearful that the commercial guys will fail" to deliver on the promises to get beyond low earth orbit, and that the policy risks setting back the nation's space program.

Yeah, well, not everyone has a rich investor backing them who isn't concerned about orbital capability.

That's kind of interesting, and unexpected from him. He may just not want the government money fueled competition, especially considering he's so far ahead of everyone else. Perhaps is reasoning is something less competitive. Whatever it is, he didn't elaborate, did he?

It is clear to me that it was a hell of an effort getting to an aircraft assisted ballistic boost to reach a 70 mile apogee and uncontrolled fall back to Earth like a shuttlecock. Burt Rutan knows it is a tremendous difference from his great success to a multistaged 300 mile apogee orbital launch with controlled reentry.

bump

Burt smells a rat in Zero’s plan for NASA to rely on “commercial” space companies.

Burt did not get where he is by being reckless. He pushes the boundaries methodically calculating the risks. He sees that this effort is driven by politics not engineering and will likely blow up and wreck the long term prospects for commercial space.

I tend to agree with him, but I’ll watch and wait to see what develops before publicly criticize it.

I guess Burt has earned the right to be more outspoken when he sees a train wreck coming that could affect his business.

I smell a rat too..

Here is the full letter....

Thomas M. Culligan
Congressional Appropriations Legislative Assistant
The Hon. Frank R. Wolf (VA-10)

Tom,

I occasionally banter with my friend, Mike Griffin on subjects that
include golf, the AGW scare and NASA policy. After sending him my
latest tirade, he shared with me his recent letter to you regarding
taxpayer-funded space research. I promised him that I would send you my
thoughts on the debate, which follow:

From my past comments on NASA’s post-mid-70s manned space
efficiencies/accomplishments, an observer might think that I would
applaud a decision to turn this important responsibility over to
commercial developers. However, he would be wrong.

No question, it would be good to see commercial companies quickly
succeed at orbital access and to take that capability beyond low earth
orbit. However, I am fearful that the commercial guys will fail; i.e.
they will do little more in my remaining lifetime than NASA accomplished
in 3.5 years with Gemini in the mid 1960s. That would be a very big
mistake for America to make, as we move into an era of real competition
in space exploration as well as risk the loss of our leadership in
nearly every other technical discipline.

Mike Griffin’s excellent statement says it best; “I too want, in the
strongest possible terms, to have government policies which serve to
stimulate private development of space. But at the same time, I too am
reluctant — with an analogy to instrument flying — to give up an
airport where I know I can get in on the approach, for one where I
might”.

What I would like to see is a decade or two of overlap - an initial push
in the commercial arena of manned spaceflight (Development programs, not
Research programs), while NASA flies risky new ideas (read, true
Research programs, giving at least a chance of discovering an important
new Breakthrough), and at the same time pushes the forefront of
Exploration beyond the earth’s moon.

Imagine how much better America could motivate our youth if we were
spending the billions of Stimulus Package money on making real progress
in our efforts to someday colonize off the planet.

Two years after Neil and Buzz landed on the moon, America led the world
in awarding PhDs in science/engineering/math. Today we are not even on
the first or second page and most of our University’s technical
graduates take their skills back to their own countries to compete with
us. The motivation of our youth is the most important thing we do for
our nation’s long-term security and prosperity. NASA’s role in that can
be as critical as it was in the 60s if the taxpayers fund true Research
and Exploration.

The attachment is a photo I took at the Shuttle STS-130 launch -
Caption: “Reaction when told about the President’s NASA directive to
abandon manned spaceflight”.

As always, I am ok with the distribution of my thoughts without
limitation.

While I usually offer candid remarks at the drop of the hat, I am not
interested in Congressional testimony, since under duress I occasionally
have been known to blurt out the truth. I have no interest in being in
the same room with John Holdren..... Taking a line from a very old play:
“I must turn away, least I soil my hands with the blood of a fool”

Gotta love that last bit! LOL

Also he added this recently.......

Burt Rutan has released the following statement:

To my friends in the Press...

Since the WSJ chose to cherry-pick and miss-quote my comments to Cong
Wolf and since the blogs have taken that to further mischaracterized my
comments, I am forwarding the Wolf memo in its entirety, in the hopes
that some of this gets corrected. Some additional clarification of my thoughts follow:

My basic concern is that the real value of NASA’s contributions that
America realized in the 60s and early 70s is now being completely
discarded. How can we rationalize a surrender of our preeminence in
human spaceflight? In my mind, the important NASA accomplishments are
twofold: 1) The technical breakthroughs achieved by basic research (not
by Development programs like Constellation) and 2) The Forefront Manned
Exploration that provided the inspiration for our youth to plan careers
in engineering/science and that established the U.S. as the world leader
in technology.

In short, it is a good idea indeed for the commercial community to
compete to re-supply the ISS and to bring about space access for the
public to enjoy. I applaud the efforts of SpaceX, Virgin and Orbital in
that regard and feel these activities should have been done at least two
decades ago. However, I do not see the commercial companies taking
Americans to Mars or to the moons of Saturn within my lifetime and I
doubt if they will take the true Research risks (technical and
financial) to fly new concepts that have low confidence of return on
investment. Even NASA, regarded as our prime Research agency has not
recently shown a willingness to fly true Research concepts.

For years I have stated that a NASA return-to-moon effort must include
true Research content, i.e. testing new concepts needed to enable
forefront Exploration beyond the moon. The current Ares/Orion does not
do that. While I have been critical of Constellation for that reason, I
do not think that NASA should ‘give up’ on manned spaceflight, just that
they should be doing it while meeting the 1) or 2) criteria above.

Some have guessed that my recent comments are based on my overall
displeasure with the Obama Administration. they are not; however it does
seem that the best technical minds in U.S. industry are still striving
to find HOW America can continue to be “exceptional”, while the
Administration does not want America to BE “exceptional”.

Burt Rutan