Atlas V comes under fire

[publiusr]

"The following authorization language, which sources say was written, if not wholly then very nearly so, by SpaceX and promoted by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Dick Durbin, has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill for the last several days...Adoption of the proposal’s language would not only likely mean the end of the Atlas V rocket but would also practically guarantee SpaceX a monopoly in the commercial crew launch market."

http://www.americaspace.com/?p=56744

I can't really blame Musk after this blurb:

"ULA President and CEO Michael Gass also testified at the hearing, and was asked by Senator Dick Durbin about ULA's relationship with the Russian company that builds the RD-180 engine:"

Atlas V will continue to provide assured access to space for our nation’s national security satellites....The same cannot be said for Space X’s family of rockets – which do not currently meet the needs to service our nation’s national security launch need.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-russia-ukraine-ula-2014-3#ixzz2y8rEKq66
http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthread.php?149737-Ukraine-and-CCtCap

Nice to see something besides SLS come under fire> BTW, there has been some news on that front:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/04/vab-key-role-sls-processing-flow/

Here is a source of children's books you might want to see
http://www.jeffreybennett.com/ http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10070.html
Maybe there is hope for all you folks doing fan productions
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/...r-wars-20140402,0,5772746.story#axzz2y8stf1i6

And lastly, a little history on what Dream Chaser could have been: http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2005-03/orbital-holidays-start-bang

 

[gturner]

Has Bolden walked back his statement to Congress that he'd recommend canceling Orion and SLS if Putin gets prickly and doesn't let our astronauts ride up on the Soyuz?

 

[Chilli]

Has Bolden walked back his statement to Congress that he'd recommend canceling Orion and SLS if Putin gets prickly and doesn't let our astronauts ride up on the Soyuz?

Context

Basically, if I'm getting this correctly: NASA has been pushing for an asteroid rendezvous, Congress and White House have been more interested in "status quo" operations. So Bolden is saying "to hell with status quo" ...?

NASA cutting ties with Russia is actually quite a shocker. Messed up as politics have been elsewhere, space exploration-wise, NASA and the Soviet/Russian space program have been best buds since 1975.

I'm of two minds about it myself. I don't like science being subject to the whims of politics. But, I understand that both the Soviet and American space programs owe their existence to political whims in the first place. Last time Russians and Americans got really antagonistic about space exploration, they put a guy into space, and we put a guy on the moon.

 

[gturner]

One issue I have with Bolden's ill advised statement to Congress is that Putin and the Russian military could hear it. During a period of very tense relations, telling the Russians that we'll cancel our government manned spaceflight program if they dare to cut us off from the ISS is just, well, ill advised. What's next, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs saying that we'll gut the Air Force and remove US forces from Europe if the Russians continue to interfere in Ukraine?

 

[publiusr]

I can't blame Musk--ULA is his biggest enemy, not SLS.

Oh, here is more on what the initial dream chaser would have looked like BTW

Orion's brain is already up
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/04/eft-1-orions-brain-active-ahead-of-flight/

Europa being looked at
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/03/sls-positioning-arrm-europa-missions/

 

[sojourner]

hotlinking images from other sites is not allowed, and pretty redundant in this case since that image is from the article linked in your first post.

 

[gturner]

The second link is unintentionally funny.

Space Launch System (SLS) managers are conducting a feasibility study into the use of a 5.4 meter payload fairing, with a view to enabling the use of the HLV for the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) spacecraft – set to launch in 2019 – and even a robotic mission to Europa. The effort is part of a multifaceted drive to find missions for the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV).

Maybe they should use it to put a locomotive engine into orbit. Nobody's done that before.

The first link was just that they've proceeded to I/O checkout. I've done hundreds of those, and it's really really boring but absolutely required.

 

[publiusr]

That three core BFR looks to put a whole train up there.

here is something that struck me as odd--how little ULA gets from its parent companies: http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/40180ula-spacex-lobby-up-as-launch-competition-looms

But industry sources said ULA largely does not benefit from Lockheed or Boeing’s lobbying efforts.

“ULA operates as a separate entity from our member companies,” Jessica Rye, a ULA spokeswoman, said in an April 11 email. “While Boeing and Lockheed do advocate for ULA, the vast majority of Congressional and customer engagement is executed solely by ULA.”