SpaceX update--budget/safety issues

SpaceX update–budget/safety issues
Editor note—Shuttle gathers dust in MUSEUM. After all the experts have recommended to keep using shuttle, you would think a few leaders in Congress could get emergency funded in place.
 
NASA Budget Woes Delay Space-Taxi Plans
 
Andy Pasztor – Wall Street Journal
 
U.S. space officials said budget uncertainties will push back the use of private space taxis for transporting astronauts into orbit by at least a year, necessitating a new contracting strategy with suppliers and delaying such flights until at least 2017.
 
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will use flexible, cost-sharing arrangements to support private efforts by at least two prospective U.S. providers to develop commercially built rockets and spacecraft, William Gerstenmaier, who heads the agency’s manned program operations, said on Thursday. The flexible contracts will replace conventional contracts for development work, which NASA was slated to kick off earlier this week with a formal request for proposals, Mr. Gerstenmaier said.
 
NASA has used such a flexible approach in the past to spur development of private cargo spacecraft, setting program milestones and sharing development costs but providing reduced technical and financial oversight.
 
Mr. Gerstenmaier blamed the change in plans on an uncertain budget environment that prompted the agency to pursue a strategy that offered a “lot of flexibility” on the financial side. The White House requested more than $800 million annually to support development of private space taxis, but lawmakers have reduced that amount to about $400 million.
 
The shift indicates agency officials don’t feel confident Congress will provide adequate funds to support the development of two separate families of commercially built rockets and spacecraft. Already, Congress has attached some strings that could further reduce NASA’s budget for commercial rocket development by linking such dollars to the agency’s progress in developing a separate, larger rocket funded entirely by the agency.
 
The new strategy is designed to persuade commercial space ventures to continue their own funding of proposed rockets and capsules, which are meant to transport U.S. astronauts to the international space station toward the end of this decade. NASA has relied on so-called Space Act Agreement funding arrangements in the past to partner on proposed commercial space projects with companies including Boeing Co., Orbital Sciences Corp. and closely-held Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
 
Another result is that NASA will have to contract with Russian space officials and potentially pay them hundreds of millions of additional dollars to continue transporting U.S. astronauts to the space station for longer than previously anticipated. NASA previously said even a year or so delay in deploying private crew taxis would mean paying roughly $400 million extra to the Russians.
 
While the change of plans reduces NASA’s financial commitment to the development of the rockets, it also limits the agency’s influence over the engineering and design of the spacecraft. The downside of the new approach, Mr. Gerstenmaier told reporters, is that it “doesn’t ensure that we will get exactly what we need.”
 
Mr. Gerstenmaier said the shift “allows us to make continuous progress” while also maintaining competition for developing new hardware. NASA officials previously said budget restrictions could make it difficult to fund more than one viable design.
 
Mr. Gerstenmaier also told reporters that the goal is to get through the development phase “as quickly as possible” by allowing contractors to move at their own pace to provide innovative design solutions.
 
“Based on our previous work,” he said, “there is a pretty good possibility” the revamped acquisition plan will support at least two contractor teams to finalize and verify their designs. NASA believes that the revised arrangement will promote greater interest among contractors while reducing red tape.
 
Rep. Ralph Hall, the Texas Republican who heads the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, issued a statement stressing the challenges facing NASA.
 
“Given current federal budget constraints, I continue to be concerned about NASA’s ability to afford contracting with two or more companies to ferry our astronauts to and from the International Space Station,” Mr. Hall said. “NASA cannot impose its safety requirements as would be possible under a normal acquisition” process.
 
NASA still hopes to sign conventional contracts with commercial-space ventures before final designs are locked in, and later to purchase transportation to the space station, according to Mr. Gerstenmaier.