Republican war on Shuttles?
Jun 23rd, 2006 by Moonage
A while back someone was pointing to budget cuts at NASA as a sure sign that Republicans were waging a war on science. One of my rebuttals was that it is Republican to encourage the private sector to do what it can, the federal government does what the private sector can not. I then tore into a major analysis of why I think the Shuttles are past their prime. Now, as we anxiously await the 32nd and now annual Discovery launch, I read this interesting bit:
Even as one NASA team prepares for next week’s shuttle launch, another team is taking a hard look at six alternative visions for low-cost successors to the shuttle. NASA officials are keeping a low profile, but the six finalists involved in the agency’s $500 million commercial space competition are giving way more visibility to those future spaceship visions.
The idea behind NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS, is that the space agency would purchase services on privately built spacecraft to send crew members or cargo back and forth between Earth and the international space station. The concept has been compared to renting a truck from U-Haul rather than maintaining your own fleet of moving vans and buses.
That is SO Republican. Encouraging the private sector to get involved is hardly my idea of “a war on science”. Being as NASA at this point can’t reliably get the 25 year old Shuttles into space more than once a year or so, maybe someone else can do it better? I want a fleet of ships designed to do specific tasks. It doesn’t make sense to use a bus to transport 5 people to a space station. I like this COTS plan a LOT.
