The simple fact is that we inherited a system that no longer made sense to continue.
Without increasing NASA’s budget significantly (more than the $3B in the Augustine
report – which would not in fact have covered extending Constellation), we couldn’t
afford the Constellation systems and also do those critical activities supported by nearly
everyone in this budget. Flying out the Shuttle safely, extending the life of the ISS and
fully utilizing that $100B research lab, increasing aeronautics and Earth Sciences,
investing in technology development…
You can also think of if this way – for those of you focused on working to get
Constellation back in the budget for 2011 (and I harbor no ill-will against those of you
working to do that – I believe in this Democracy – I love our system of government,
have studied it, and it is the reason I moved to Washington, DC the day I graduated
from College – to work for Senator John Glenn who was running for President) – so I
get it – it is our rights as citizens to work with our elected officials to make our views
known.
So – if Constellation is put back in the budget – (without a $3-5B increase in NASA’s
top-line) – that much money would have to be cut from the proposed budget – meaning
no extension of the ISS (so when Ares/Orion launches for the first time in 2017 – there
will be no where for it to go --- for about 10 years, until the Ares V is developed (since
the funding for Ares V didn’t begin in any serious way until 2016 – it needed the funding
from driving the ISS into the Pacific…) No flying out the Shuttle safetly – the $600M
budgeted in ’11 would be needed for Constellation – so perhaps Shuttle would be
retired without the last flight or two – no AMS? No OCO reflight, or climate and earth
science missions would be flown for another 5 years, possibly leaving us with large data
gaps about our planet’s health and no investment in technology development that
contribute to a growing economic base.
If Constellation is terminated, as proposed, we will build on its legacy, using what makes
sense in the new plans. Read the whole speech
Garver discusses Constellation on This Week in Space. Garver says NASA has been trying to relive Apollo, but the politics --and the budget-- of now are different than then. There is no competition to get to space between the U.S. and Russia:
