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U.S. Returning to Human Space Flight

President Trump has reconstituted the National Space Council, a step towards fulfilling his emphasis on restoring America’s lead in space exploration and utilization, a hope he included in his inaugural address.

During his tenure in the Oval Office, Barack Obama prematurely ended the Space Shuttle program, then eliminated funding for developing the Constellation system, which had been scheduled to replace the Shuttle as America’s manned space effort.  This rendered the United States dependent on Russia for manned access to orbit. He changed NASA’s budgetary focus from human exploration to endeavors meant to bolster his climate change beliefs. The National Space Council was disbanded.

Writing for The Hill, Mark R. Whittington reported:

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In a dramatic reversal of the prior administration, Vice President Pence’s announcement this month of the restoration of the National Space Council, which he will chair, (the secretaries of Defense, Commerce, and State, will be members) outlined its role in coordinating the White House’s ambitious scientific, commercial and security goals beyond Earth. In his opening remarks to the restored Council, Pence noted “…in recent years, the clarity of our purpose and the confidence of our conviction that propelled the United States to be a vanguard of space exploration seems to have waned. America seems to have lost our edge in space — and those days are over… for too long our government’s commitment has failed to match our people’s spirit and meet our nation’s needs. The truth is that America entered this new millennium without a coherent policy, a coherent vision for outer space. And in the absence of American leadership, other nations have seized the opportunity to stake their claim in the infinite frontier. Rather than lead in space, too often, we have chosen to drift. And, as we learned 60 years ago, when we drift, we fall behind…

“…sending Americans to the moon was treated as a triumph to be remembered, but not repeated. Every passing year that the moon remained squarely in the rearview mirror further eroded our ability to return to the lunar domain and made it more likely that we would forget why we ever wanted to go in the first place. And now we find ourselves in a position where the United States has not sent an American astronaut beyond low-Earth orbit in 45 years. Across the board, our space program has suffered from apathy and neglect. “When the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, we had four years to find an assured way for our astronauts to get into space. In the meantime, we agreed to pay Russia to hitch a ride on their rockets to the International Space Station. But four years turned into five, and five years turned into six, and here we are, in 2017, still relying on the Russians to ferry our astronauts to the International Space Station — at a cost-per-seat that now stands at more than $76 million…rather than competing with other nations to create the best space technology, the previous administration chose capitulation. According to the U.S. intelligence community, Russia and China are pursuing a full range of anti-satellite technology to reduce U.S. military effectiveness, and they are increasingly considering attacks against satellite systems as part of their future warfare doctrine.”

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NASA Seeks to Protect Earth from Asteroid Impacts

NASA is taking steps to deal with the ultimate global disaster, a holocaust that could occur anytime from a few weeks to a few thousand years from now, but which has a significant probability of happening and that, in the distant past, already caused the mass extinction of planetary life, ending the reign of the dinosaurs.

The U.S. space agency is implementing an Asteroid Grand Challenge, designed to accelerate NASA’s efforts to locate potentially hazardous asteroids through non-traditional collaborations and partnerships. Part of the program will be to explore ways in which potentially hazardous asteroids could be deflected away from Earth.

NASA’s JPL facility  has announced that it “has formalized its ongoing program for detecting and tracking near-Earth objects (NEOs) as the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). … [It] will also take a leading role in coordinating interagency and intergovernmental efforts in response to any potential impact threats.”

NASA reports that more than 13,500 near-Earth objects of all sizes have been discovered to date — more than 95 percent of them since NASA-funded surveys began in 1998. About 1,500 NEOs are now detected each year.

According to John Grunesfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, “Asteroid detection, tracking and defense of our planet is something that NASA, its interagency partners, and the global community take very seriously. While there are no known impact threats at this time, the 2013 Chelyabinsk super-fireball and the recent ‘Halloween Asteroid’ close approach remind us of why we need to remain vigilant and keep our eyes to the sky. NASA has been engaged in worldwide planning for planetary defense for some time, and this office will improve and expand on those efforts, working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal agencies and departments.

“With more than 90 percent of NEOs larger than 3,000 feet (1 kilometer) already discovered, NASA is now focused on finding objects that are slightly bigger than a football field — 450 feet (140 meters) or larger. In 2005, NASA was tasked with finding 90 percent of this class of NEOs by the end of 2020. NASA-funded surveys have detected an estimated 25 percent of these mid-sized but still potentially hazardous objects to date.

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“Even if intervention is not possible, NASA would provide expert input to FEMA about impact timing, location and effects to inform emergency response operations. In turn, FEMA would handle the preparations and response planning related to the consequences of atmospheric entry or impact to U.S. communities.”

A space agency “asteroid initiative” study concluded that the “Asteroid Grand Challenge (AGC)… is seeking the best ideas to find all asteroid threats to human populations, and to accelerate the work that NASA is already doing for planetary defense. The Asteroid Initiative will leverage and integrate NASA’s activities in human exploration, space technology, and space science to advance the technologies and capabilities needed for future human and robotic exploration, to enable the first human mission to interact with asteroid material, and to accelerate efforts to detect, track, characterize, and mitigate the threat of potentially hazardous asteroids.”

Similar to spectacular science fiction films about asteroid threats, a NASA attempt to deflect a menacing object would involve a human crew. The AGC study outlined “concepts for extra-vehicular activity (EVA) systems, such as space suits, tools, and translation aids that will allow astronauts to explore the surface of a captured asteroid, prospect for resources, and collect samples.”

Unfortunately, NASA’s plans for manned space flights continue to be pushed further into the future.  President Obama prematurely ended the Space Shuttle program, then cancelled its successor, the Constellation.  The newest version, the Orion spacecraft, essentially an updated and enlarged Apollo-era vehicle, will not take astronauts into space until 2023.

NASA’s limited budget has concentrated attention on the White House’s environmental issues rather than the space agency’s original human exploratory mission.

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America’s crisis in space

America’s return to human space flight capability has been pushed yet again into the future.

The Orion spacecraft, already in the relatively distant future of 2021, has been pushed back again to 2023. That date would mean that NASA manned spacecraft would be absent from space for a stunning 12 years, since the Space Shuttle Atlantis mission of July 2011.

The gap was to be filled by the Constellation spaceflight system, which President Obama cancelled, leaving the United States with no domestic human spaceflight capability.  Constellation was to be used for both earth orbital missions and a return to the moon.

According to Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas)  “Once again, the Obama administration is choosing to delay deep space exploration priorities such as Orion and the Space Launch System that will take U.S. astronauts to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.  While this administration has consistently cut funding for these programs and delayed their development, Congress has consistently restored funding as part of our commitment to maintaining American leadership in space. We must chart a compelling course for our nation’s space program so that we can continue to inspire future generations of scientists, engineers and explorers.  I urge this administration to follow the lead of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s NASA Authorization Act to fully fund NASA’s exploration programs.”

The administration’s FY16 budget request proposed cuts of more than $440 million for the programs while earth science accounts have increased by 63 percent during the past eight years. Thirteen agencies do climate research, but only one conducts space exploration.

According to NASA,  the “Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Orion will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System.”

Many have expressed deep concern that NASA has been politicized by the Obama Administration. It has been charged that the space agency has been mainly used to further the White House’s environmental agenda. They point to the diversion of funds from traditional efforts such as manned space flight and towards climate change.

In 2010, several former APOLLO program astronauts wrote to the White House to oppose the Administration’s controversial new direction for NASA, noting that “Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity.  America must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space.  If it does, we should institute a program which will give us the very best chance of achieving that goal.”
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Critics of the White House also point to bizarre comments made by Charles Bolden, whom the President appointed to run the space agency. Shortly after his appointment, Bolden, speaking in Cairo, stated

“…before I became the NASA administrator [President Obama] charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science.”

In other comments, Bolden stated that his most important task as head of NASA was to reach out to Muslims.

Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) has introduced legislation to de-politicize the space agency.

“I authored the Space Leadership Preservation Act which would make NASA more professional and less political by establishing a long-term NASA Administrator who overlaps presidential administrations, creating a board to drive the vision for NASA exploration, and allowing NASA to develop spacecraft using long term contracts. This legislation would provide NASA with stability and authority to pursue our universe’s most pressing questions.”

Rep. Steven Palazzo, (R-Mississippi) the House of Representatives Space subcommittee chair, applauded a budget bill earlier this year that rebalanced the space agency’s budget towards NASA’s traditional activities.

By putting off the lion’s share of funding to long after it has left office, the Obama Administration may have eluded the harsh criticism it may otherwise have faced if it had simply stated that it was defunding NASA’s human spaceflight program.

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America’s vanishing manned space program

The debate over America’s human presence in space has begun.

Since the start of the Obama Administration, NASA’s emphasis has altered dramatically, as financial support for exploration and space operations, including human flight, has been slashed by 7.9%. Meanwhile, earth science, including both legitimate research as well as questionable endeavors primarily designed to bolster the President’s climate change agenda, experienced a 41% increase. A General Accounting Office study found that “NASA had not matched resources to requirements” for programs related to human space flight.

In addition to funding shifts, ideological changes were imposed as well. NASA chief Charles Bolden made a bizarre remark .  in 2010  that one of NASA’s chief goals was to reach out to Moslems.

Critics have not hidden their disdain for the course NASA has been given under the current White House. John L. Casey, a former White House space policy advisor, stated in a recent exclusive interview on the Vernuccio/Novak Report that NASA was engaging in “data doctoring” to support global warming theory advocates and essentially ignoring its core mission.

Human space flight was essentially removed from NASA’s short-term goals in 2010 when Mr. Obama cancelled the Constellation program,after prematurely ending the space shuttle program. The U.S. remains dependent on Russia to place astronauts in space. While underfunded work very slowly proceeds on plans for the future Orion crewed vehicle and the related Space Launch System, both are essentially updates on concepts originally designed in the late 1960’s and do not represent a significant path for a return to American preeminence in space. Neither of these efforts will actually be capable of putting astronauts in space, if ever, until after the Obama Administration leaves office.
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The White House counters criticism by stating their support for NASA’s manned space efforts, emphasizing its support ($438.8 increase requested) for development of commercially operated spacecraft, part of a modest $519 million hike in the agency’s overall budget. However, the Orion and Space Launch System programs, which are the only significant NASA efforts to restore America’s ability to put astronauts into space, would endure a combined $2.8 billion reduction in the 2016 budget.

House Science Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-Texas), quoted in Spacenews, noted “The President’s words mean nothing if crucial priorities such as SLS and Orion aren’t given the funding they need in his budget request.”

Following the Republican capture of the Senate in the 2014 elections, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tx) was named as chair of the Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness. He is seeking to re-emphasize NASA’s original mission, and noted, at the start of hearings on NASA’s 2016 budget:

“As we begin the process of putting a road map together for the future of NASA there is one vital question that this committee should examine. Should NASA focus primarily inwards or outwards beyond lower-Earth orbit? Since the end of the last administration we have seen a disproportionate increase in the amount of federal funds that have been allocated to the Earth Science program at the expense of and compared to Exploration and Space Operations, Planetary Science, Heliophysics and Astrophysics which I believe are all rooted in exploration and should be central to the core mission of NASA.”