NASA Chief to Congress: 'Don't Make Us Hitch Rides With Russia'
Source: NBC News
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is tired of relying on the Russians to carry American astronauts into space.
Currently, the United States pays for spots on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, which carry people and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting Earth. The White House decided to retire the Space Shuttle in 2004 after the Columbia disaster, leading to the final launch in 2011.
In an op-ed published Friday in Wired titled "Congress, Don't Make Us Hitch Rides With Russia. Love, NASA," he made the case to Congress to fund the Commercial Crew program, a partnership between NASA and private companies to launch astronauts into low orbit from American soil.
"Just recently, NASA was left with no other choice but to write a $490 million check to our Russian counterparts so that we can get our own astronauts to the Space Station," Bolden wrote. "It doesn't have to be this way."
Earlier this month, he complained to Congress that they set U.S. launches back two years because of inadequate funding, forcing NASA to ask for money to buy rides on Russian rockets.
Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasa-chief-tells-congress-dont-make-us-hitch-rides-russia-n417771
Congress, Don’t Make Us Hitch Rides With Russia. Love, NASA
Saturday will mark 1,500 days since the Space Shuttle touched down for the final time. Grounding human spaceflights was always supposed to be temporary as we made the necessary transition to a new generation of spacecraft, operated by American commercial carriers. Likewise, paying for seats on Russian spacecraft to send our astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) was always intended to be a stopgap.
Had Congress adequately funded President Obama’s Commercial Crew proposal, we could have been making final preparations this year to once again launch American astronauts to space from American soil aboard American spacecraft.
Instead we are faced with uncertainty—and we will continue to be so long as Congress resists fully investing in Commercial Crew.
What we do know for certain is that every dollar we invest in Moscow is a dollar we’re not investing in American businesses in Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota or any of the 35 states where 350 American companies are working to allow the greatest country on Earth to once again launch our own astronauts into space.
It’s as if we keep ordering expensive takeout because we haven’t yet set up our own kitchen—only, in this case, the takeout meals are costing us hundreds of millions of dollars. Just recently, NASA was left with no other choice but to write a $490 million check to our Russian counterparts so that we can get our own astronauts to the Space Station. It doesn’t have to be this way. Congress can and should still fix this by investing in Commercial Crew.
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Statistical
(19,264 posts)They know they can get away with it because we have obligations to the ISS through 2025. The Commercial Crew program is ~$20M per person*. We could send double the number of people into space (even sell seats to other partners) for less than we currently pay the Russians while creating jobs here in the US.
Why would the Senate be against it? They want to shove their boondoggle of space pork the Shuttle Launch System or what some of us in the industry call the Senate Launch System (good for dumping billions across the local districts). Of course the SLS can't possibly be ready before 2021 but they need to kill Commercial Crew program because otherwise by the time the SLS is ready it won't be needed. Also don't think the SLS is what NASA wants. The "estimated" cost per person to the ISS would be $83M to $250M and nobody thinks those numbers are even realistic. The SLS isn't all bad but it is kind of like using a mining dump truck to drive your kids to school just down the road.
* To be fair this is optimal pricing. SpaceX will guarantee $140M per flight (of up to 7 crew) if NASA commits to two flights per year (14 crew total). Using less flights or less crew per flight would result in a higher "ticket price" but compared to the Russians even a single flight half full would be much cheaper and honestly there is no way anything could be more expensive than the Senate Launch System.
Beta Male
(52 posts)In addition to the financial cost, Soyuz vehicles are death traps, "just like everything else the Russians have ever made." - Tom Clancy
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arcane1
(38,613 posts)Response to Beta Male (Reply #2)
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MattSh
(3,714 posts)I hope we're not looking to Clancy as an expert in either Soviet or Russian technology.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Now, that lead to the death of four Cosmonauts, one in the first accident, three is the second. Afterward the Soyez was redesigned and no loss of life since then:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(spacecraft)#First_generation
There have been other failures, but none where Astronauts or Cosmonauts were on board (one ground crewman was killed on one of these accidents).
