Tweeted yesterday by Hyperbola, below is the full text of Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan's response to Associated Press science writer Alicia Chang:

That is not a "NASA plan"; it is the proposed budget from the White House.  It will likely be revised by the Congress. I am for NASA doing either true Research, or doing forefront Exploration, with taxpayer $.

Ares/Orion is more of a Development program than a Research program, so I am not depressed to see it disappear. I am concerned to see NASA manned spaceflight disappear, since they provided world leadership in the 60s and part of the 70s.  The result was America's universities being the leader in Science/Engineering PhDs.  

Many American kids will be depressed by the thought that our accomplishments will not be continued and thus America will fall deeper away from our previous leadership in Engineering/Science/Math.  I believe our future success depends on our ability to motivate our youth.

I would support a restructuring of goals and funding so NASA can be allowed to perform like the 60s on space Research and on Exploration.  There is not a shred of evidence that the President sees any value in those goals.

Alicia, my thoughts have also been distributed to other Media.

credit: Sierra Nevada / caption: Sierra Nevada's Dreamchaser docks with the International Space Station

In the picture above Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dreamchaser reusable vehicle concept docks with the International Space Station. Of NASA's five Commercial Crew Development initiative funded space act agreements announced on 2 February Sierra Nevada won the largest sum, $20 million out of a total fund of $50 million

Sierra Nevada's Mark Sirangelo told Hyperbola: "We are planning to mature our rocket motor system and develop an early prototype drop test vehicle under this programme and supplementing it with our own resources.  It is only an eight month programme in its current form. Our programme goal is to have a usable orbital vehicle in service by 2014. The vehicle will take seven crew and critical cargo to and from [low Earth orbit] destinations and be able to land on a 3,000m [9,800ft] runway.  Our team consists of seven prominent space companies and universities all with considerable experience."

Watch the Russia Today report above that talks to the designers of a suborbital tourism system we have seen before but now they are saying it will cost $200 million to develop and its first generation mini-shuttle would carry one pilot and two passengers, each paying $200,000 for a ticket. The company behind it, and the Geophysica high altitude aircraft that would air launch the three-person mini-shuttle, also have plans for a 14-seater version that would be carried by the Soviet space shuttle Buran's Atlanta transport aircraft 

credit: Lockheed / caption: cancelled? but it could fly in 2013 says Lockheed

The total annihilation of the Constellation programme with the culling of the Orion crew exploration vehicle and any vestigal remains of the Ares V cargo launch vehicle was a surprise for this blogger. Despite the prospects for Constellation beginning to look bad last year with the Review of US human spaceflight plans Lockheed Martin officials could still be seen smiling at the technical conferences I attend while Ares contractors were obviously not happy bunnies

And that big smile on Lockheed's employees' faces seemed justified because, for what has felt like forever, we have been hearing that a commercial provider could deliver crew and cargo to the International Space Station but something else would take the brave explorers beyond low Earth orbit. Throughout all of the kerfuffle over the cancellation of Constellation in the last few days this blog has not spotted (correct me if I'm wrong) any one asking the question, what are the astronauts travelling beyond LEO to travel in?     


credit: Boeing / caption: Boeing's commercial crew capsule, so that's what happened to the Northrop/Boeing Orion

click on any of the images in this blog post to see larger versions in the same browser window

Constellation supporters sent Hyperbola this video, watch and make your on mind up

NASA's first foray into private spaceflight, the commercial orbital transportation services programme, also known as COTS, has seen a 60% hike in the agency's investment with the fiscal year 2011 budget

Originally planned to cost $500 million which the agency would match against private finance to help develop new transportation systems, the real cost now looks to be at least $800 million

In today's exploration FY2011 budget teleconference NASA exploration systems mission directorate head Doug Cooke admitted that the $312 million for "commercial cargo" was $300 million of additional monies - over the $12 million originally planned for FY2011 under the FY2010 budget

While the FY2011 budget document refers to "additional incentives" under commercial cargo on page 10 Cooke said in the telecon that the $312 million was "insurance" so they, the COTS companies Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences could succeed; and that the money would help accelerate the programme with "more flights" and enhancements such as "downmass," which could be a reference to Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft that unlike SpaceX's Dragon was not originally conceived as being able to bring back cargo

The hike could be an embarressment for president Barack Obama's new spaceflight vision and his NASA administrator Charles Bolden because the agency and administration has, in the past 48 hours, invested so much confidence in what is effectively the privatisation of low Earth orbit transport of crew and cargo - with the announcement of the Commercial Crew Development initiative funded space act agreement winners

Perhaps the big surprise of the NASA budget teleconference was the sudden announcement by agency administrator Charles Bolden of the winners for NASA's $50 million Commercial Crew Development initiative

This bloggers question, if selected during the teleconference Q&A, would have been, how does CCDev tally with this new commercial crew transportation programme that will get $500 million in fiscal year 2011. Is CCDev, for example, going to be the COTS to the commercial crew programme's CRS?

COTS being the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services demonstration project that is funding Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences and CRS, or Commercial Resupply Services, being a competitively tendered contract for ISS cargo resupply

The winners Bolden announced are Boeing, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, Paragon Space Development and Sierra Nevada Corporation. We know that Bigelow Aerospace has teamed with Boeing. Space Exploration Technologies told this blog off the record a whileback that they were not expecting to be selected for CCDev

Deputy administrator Lori Garver explained during the teleconference that the companies that were part of the Constellation programme could use some of the output from that, from the approx. $9 billion invested, to offer spacecraft for the new commercial programme

More detail will be given tomorrow at the 2 February 10:00h local time (15:00h GMT) press conference at the National Press Club when NASA administrator Charles Bolden and John Holdren, assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, speak about the new commercial efforts

US spaceflight website space.com has revealed that in a teleconference yesterday the US government's Office of Management and Budgets' director Peter Orszag and the White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer confirmed that president Barack Obama's fiscal year 2011 budget request for NASA does not include the Constellation programme

But with the NASA aprorpiations bill for FY2010 requiring Congressional approval to cancel the Constellation programme the mere fact that Obama has requested in his budget for FY2011 that it be cancelled does not make it so. Healthcare bills anyone?

OMB releases NASA budget higlhights - care of Jeff Foust

Hyperbola is and will be working east coast time to cover the NASA budget publication and reactions to it