Sounding the Alarm !

Believe it or not, Space  capabilities are critical for Survival.   Abbey made the point without "sounding the alarm".   But, THE ALARM needs SOUNDING, we must convince congress to Regain USA Preeminence before it is TOO late.

Let's face it, we do not have people in nasa, WH, or Congress that give a damn about the USA space capabilities.  We desperately need to change this situation.  

To do this we must set up blogs, & get people informed & to write congress people advising them that you want a strong program & ask why we are expanding X37 to replace shuttle with.

From Abbey Washington Examiner article---

This year is a banner year for marking anniversaries of achievements in space. The first walk in space was 50 years ago in March, and 40 years ago this month, the Apollo-Soyuz mission brought two Cold War adversaries together.

We can look back with pride on our achievements in space, but we should look ahead with concern for the uncertain future of America's human spaceflight program.

We should have a policy built on past activities and on a vision that doesn't change as administrations come and go. But we don't have one.

The International Space Station will be in orbit until at least 2024. It is a model of international cooperation and should lay the foundation for an international program of manned missions beyond Earth orbit. But the ability to assemble large structures in orbit and for space-walking astronauts to work on them — abilities that helped build the station — no longer exist. Fifty years ago, Alexei Leonov became the first person to leave his ship and walk in space. The ability to do that was vital to building the space station and making a success of Hubble.

America is not building a second-generation space shuttle but is instead building three space capsules: the Orion and two others, from Boeing and SpaceX. All will land by parachute, like spacecraft of the 1960s, and none will allow space walks comparable to the space shuttle. Unlike Hubble, the next big telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope (due for launch October 2018) will have to be right the first time. There will be no way to repair it. It is already more costly than originally planned, and there is no shuttle to take astronauts to save it if something goes wrong.

The U.S. Air Force's Boeing X-37B, which began as a NASA craft but was transferred to the Pentagon in 2004, is an unmanned space plane that looks like a small space shuttle. Like the shuttle, it returns to Earth and lands on a runway. It has been flying successfully for five years. A scaled-up version with an astronaut crew to work outside the vehicle could reestablish America's ability to build and maintain big structures in Earth orbit.

Doubts about human space travel are clear in the Augustine Committee's review and the three reviews of NASA. The Augustine Commission in particular said "NASA's budget should match its mission and goals." Obama is requesting $18.529 billion for NASA in fiscal 2016, an increase of $519 million, or 2.9 percent, over 2015. That's a sizable investment, but NASA faces long-term budget pressures. Its challenge is to spend wisely and build on existing capabilities.

Money spent on human exploration should be used to develop capabilities needed for a meaningful program. Research into long space flights can be done at the International Space Station, which should therefore be vigorously supported. Abundant launch vehicles are already on the commercial market, and yet a new and very expensive launch vehicle, with undefined payload and mission, is being developed. Three spacecraft are being developed to carry astronauts to space. Does the nation need three space capsules with limited capabilities? The capability that is lacking is the one that saved Hubble and built the largest structure ever assembled and flown in space. A redesigned X-37 that can carry astronauts could provide such a capability.

Reducing the cost of space flight would be a big help. Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin and Elon Musk of SpaceX are pursuing the technology for reusable rockets. United Launch Alliance is pursuing reusable first-stage engines for its next-generation Vulcan rocket. It expects the recovery of the engines alone to reduce the propulsion cost of the booster by up to 90 percent. A fly-back booster was considered during early design studies for the space shuttle, and could be achieved today. NASA should lead the way to provide such a capability and establish U.S. leadership in launch technology.

America needs a space policy that has a vision that can build on past achievements and keep moving forward. A big part of that is construction, maintenance and servicing in low-Earth orbit. Another is international cooperation. And we should realign our goals with those of other major space-faring nations and look back to the Moon, so we again become the leaders in space. After all, we've been there before. A lunar exploration program would provide the foundation for manned missions beyond the Moon. Our eyes must look to the skies with purpose toward that limitless frontier.

George Abbey is senior fellow in space policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. He is the former director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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