Mark S.· 21 weeks ago
The Obama administration most certainly did not propose to retain the Orion crew vehicle, or to build the SLS. You are giving them way too much credit. Obama canceled Orion along with the rest of CxP, and only later re-instated Orion in a reduced ISS lifeboat mode after strenuous complaints and bad press from just about everybody. It took an act of Congress to get NASA to preserve Orion as the MPCV, and push NASA to create an SLS launcher.
The administration certainly has not endorsed any of the Augustine panel FP paths, either. None of the FP options called for the cancellation of Orion. All of the FP options called for some form of HLV in the 70-130 ton range, which the administration has been delaying and obfuscating at every turn. And they still have not delivered the report on their proposed SLS implementation to Congress, other than the inadequate "preliminary" report back in January. It required a subpoena from the Senate CSJ committee to get anything at all out of NASA regarding SLS, and yet still there is no final report.
So while you're out their discovering "value propositions" for an emasculated NASA, and drumming up support for this radical reduction of NASA to a purely advisory agency, just
remember it was Obama who canceled CxP completely (including Orion) with no replacement in sight; who let the Shuttle program termination run its course when it could have been extended any time in the past two years; and who has been fighting against the will of Congress and the American people regarding SLS and the continuation of the US space program since the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 was signed into law almost a year ago. We know where the fault lies, and there is no need for you to spin a rosy picture for the administration.
Ed note: the reason for rosy picture is understandable if one looks at the background of author of "value propositions".
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