credit NASA / caption: Obama enjoys phone call to ISS but stays silent on space agency's future
It was with a forlorn hope that Hyperbola listened to the president Barack Obama teleconference with the Space Shuttle Discovery and International Space Station (ISS) crews yesterday wondering if there might be a clue to what is happening to the space agency under this administration (see the video of the teleconference in the extended portion of this blog and read the transcript here) and unsurprisingly it was just warm words, as welcome as they are
With the news that all the rumoured NASA administrator candidates have gone by the by Hyperbola understands that the search will have to start all over again and once again a process taking up to two months will take a hold at which point (late May, early June) there maybe another series of candidates, one of whom will face Congressional hearings, or should I say join a queue of the many, many people yet to be approved for the many government departments, that could last another two months. In all likelihood acting administrator Christopher Scolese's successor will not be approved until August (anybody know when Congress goes on its summer holiday?) with probably just five or six weeks of fiscal year 2009 remaining
So Hyperbola thought it would trawl recent NASA history to see if there were any candidates that might fit the bill. And what is that bill?
[The Obama ISS telecon video is at the bottom of this entry]
One of the most immediate issues for NASA, as stated by the Office of Management and Budgets (or was it the Congressional Budget Office?), is the Space Shuttle programme
Whether the orbiters are retired in 2010 or 2012 (the Congressional Budget Office predicts a December 2011 end to ISS missions not 2010) the agency needs leadership that will understand what it means to shut that $6 billion a year programme down and what the transition to Constellation, which former NASA administrator Michael Griffin said was the biggest challenge the agency had, means for the organisation and Florida in particular
Hyperbola is too busy with other things today but in due course this blog will propose its own candidates, are you listening Senator Nelson...?
on March 26, 2009 4:24 AM | Reply
Robbie.... while anything is possible maybe you should reflect that Presidents are likely more interested in how $$$ are put together than inticacies of programs.
My guess is that Obama will pick someone beholden to himself to put the budget together. Also OMB doesn't rule...the prez does. Has has already confirmed ending the shuttle program next year with just the possibility of one extra flight thrown in. I guess is that that is how it will go down.
As I mentioned before, I would like to see the Centrifuge Module go up too. Pass it arround if you will.
Me.
PS ...I thought the shuttle program (ISS excepted) was $2b a year not $6.
on March 26, 2009 9:12 AM | Reply
When I asked NASA about SSP costs a few years ago they said that at five flights a year and a $5 billion budget you could claim a shuttle flight was a billion but then again the propellant cost is $200 million, according to Mike Griffin when he was NASA head, and much of that bilion is for infrastructure and KSC workforce costs so really it is simply however much or how you want to slice the cake.
on March 26, 2009 2:09 PM | Reply
.
believe it or not... but, I (yes, "I") am the RIGHT MAN for NASA since I'm the most CREATIVE and RATIONAL mind to drive the US space agency... :)
just read my ghostNASA.com blog to discover WHY
but, unfortunately, I'm not american, I'm not a NASA guy, I'm not an aerospace engineer, I can't come in America now, my english is not so good and (also) I could have a (possible) "conflict of interests" since I want to start-up (as soon as possible) my own commercial NewSpaceAgency...
so, I'll NEVER become the NASA administrator... :(
.
on March 26, 2009 5:56 PM | Reply
Always funny to see the $50,000,000,000,000 genious having a good time watching 4x3 video in a 16x9 aspect ratio.