Congressional Support Grows For Heavy-Lift

Aviation Week and Space Technology ^ | 6/30/2010 | By Frank Morring, Jr., Irene Klotz

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

A small groundswell is rising in Congress for a faster start on the heavy-lift launch vehicle President Barack Obama says he wants, but it may be swamped by the backwash from growing irritation over NASA’s sluggish production of justification for its “game-changing” new approach.

A bipartisan gang of 62 House members wants Obama to initiate “the immediate development and production of a heavy-lift launch vehicle that, in conjunction with the Orion crew exploration vehicle, may be used for either lunar or deep-space exploration.”

Their June 22 letter to Obama, circulated by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), follows word from Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) that a new NASA authorization with at least some bipartisan support would include both a heavy-lifter and a crew exploration vehicle leveraging “the workforce, contracts, assets and capabilities of the shuttle, Ares I and Orion efforts.”

But, while some lawmakers appear ready to compromise with the White House on ending the Constellation program that has been funding Orion, the Ares I crew exploration vehicle and other follow-ons to the retiring space shuttle fleet, other space leaders are moving in completely different directions.

Retired Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), the first American in orbit, says he will lobby this week to keep the space shuttle flying beyond its planned retirement date early next year. And a key group of NASA watchers in the House has lost patience with the agency’s search for numbers to support the proposed policy.

[RobinOfKingston]

Right now, we can’t afford an artists rendition of a heavy-lift vehicle, let alone the real thing.