Why the White House Review of NASA’s Human

Spaceflight Program is Good for NASA & America

A Project of the Space
Frontier Foundation

Today’s FY2010 NASA Budget Announcement includes a new independent White House-initiated
review of all NASA human spaceflight activities post-Shuttle retirement, including questions
regarding ISS lifetime, Constellation, and the role of commercial participation in both ISS
operations and future exploration missions.

Former Administrator Michael Griffin has reflexively defended his chosen architecture as the best
approach, one which he claims has made four years of “progress”. But the fact is that in 2005
Dr. Griffin declared that that the initial operational flights of Orion and Ares 1 would take place in
2012, and today both published media reports of internal NASA estimates and assessments by
Congressional oversight agencies indicate that 2017 is much more likely, assuming no further major
technical or financial problems arise.

In other words, in four years the Gap in U.S. Human Spaceflight has grown by five years.

While the real test of any U.S. human spaceflight strategy must be an honest assessment of the
likely economic, scientific, competitive, and national security benefits it will produce, an equal
consideration from existing U.S. Space Exploration Policy is that it must be affordable, sustainable,
and practical.

Specific technical issues notwithstanding, the current approach to launching Orion has clearly failed
that test. Ares 1’s failure has not only grown the “Spaceflight Gap”:
• Its development cost growth has worsened the Affordability Gap
• Its schedule slips and projected operating costs has created an “ISS Research Gap”
• Its significantly longer development timeframe delays the development of vital Constellation
elements such as Ares 5 (or any heavy-lift system) and Altair, creating an “Exploration Gap”
• All of which combine to create an “Inspiration Gap” in young people across America.

Several credible U.S. companies, including Boeing, SpaceDev (now part of Sierra Nevada Corp.),
SpaceX and others have proposed commercial partnerships to develop simple crew-capable
spacecraft and use either existing proven rockets (or in SpaceX’s case, the hardware-in-testing
Falcon 9) to affordably transport crew and commercial spaceflight participants to and from ISS.
Both the United Launch Alliance and independent reviews have shown that existing EELVs can
also launch Orion to ISS.

By working with America’s commercial industry, NASA can start launching human beings to orbit
as early as 2011 or 2012 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. And by avoiding developing and perfecting
a new, single-purpose rocket to launch Orion, NASA can accelerate other elements of Constellation
and send humans beyond Low Earth Orbit that much sooner.

This will create more space jobs across America, more overall economic growth, and stronger
nationwide public support for America’s human spaceflight efforts. This is real progress.

For additional information or perspective, please call Project Manager James Muncy at 703-370-4539.