WASHINGTON — For the first time since man set foot on the moon four decades ago, a president has ordered a wholesale review of the space program’s future and whether the U.S. can afford to — or even wants to — return to the moon or send humans hurtling toward Mars.
With new leadership poised to take command of NASA, the next few months could be pivotal to the jobs of thousands of space program employees and contractors who depend on NASA for their livelihoods. As the shuttle prepares for its future as a museum exhibit and cost projections for a new moon mission rise while the timetable slips, the space agency’s political future is very much in doubt.
Despite President Barack Obama’s repeated expressions of excitement about space exploration, his administration’s ongoing scrutiny of the manned program is stirring concern among NASA employees and aerospace contractors that jobs will be lost, multibillion-dollar contracts will be jeopardized and the planned return to the moon will be delayed or even scrapped.
“It’s basic human instinct to wonder and perhaps worry about the future when this type of review is being conducted,” says Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, whose district includes Johnson Space Center.
The best-case scenario for Texas interests is that the independent panel, headed by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine, will provide Obama political cover to adopt President George W. Bush’s previous NASA road map. The Bush plan for the Constellation program would unite the Ares rocket system and the Orion crew capsule to reach the orbiting International Space Station beyond 2015 and the moon by 2020.
But space experts and lawmakers say the 10-member panel is far more likely to recommend changing the scope, budget and timetable for manned space operations. Particularly troublesome is the massive federal deficit, which could squeeze all discretionary spending over the next decade.
“It’s what’s known in the space trade as a ‘wicked problem,’ ” says John Logsdon, a space policy expert who is now a fellow at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. “No choice is an easy choice.”
Local cutbacks seen
The roughly 20,000 people working for Houston’s Johnson Space Center and NASA contractors in the area are expected to shoulder some of the cutbacks that result from the review, which is due at the White House by late August.
The review appears to be stirring even greater concern because Obama has sent mixed signals on manned space exploration.
He distributed a campaign document in 2007 that proposed a five-year delay in the Constellation program in order to finance a proposal for early-childhood education.
He abandoned that idea in 2008 to heartily support the manned space program during his successful courtship of the pivotal swing state of Florida, home of the Kennedy Space Center.
Yet the human flight program is already suffering cutbacks. The president’s proposed budget trims support for future manned exploration, and a House Appropriations Committee panel has agreed to cut Obama’s proposed $18.7 billion NASA budget by $651 million, including a 17 percent cut in space exploration.
The White House readied NASA’s next budget and mapped $3.8 billion in accumulated cuts for manned space exploration over the next four years even before Obama named former astronaut and retired Marine Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden as administrator.
Augustine says his panel will provide options to the White House beyond the existing program that relies on a consortium of ATK Launch Systems Group, the Boeing Co., Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Lockheed Martin Corp.
“This kind of review is not unusual for a new administration,” says George Torres, a spokesman for the ATK operation based in Brigham City, Utah. “The nation faces a once-in-a-generation decision about the future of human space flight. We’re expecting it will be a good review.”
Lawmakers watchful
Still, Texans on Capitol Hill remain on the offensive to protect Johnson Space Center and area contractors.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, of Dallas, ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which will hold confirmation hearings on Bolden, says his speedy confirmation could help bolster the manned space program amid the review. “I think manned space flight is the key element here,” Hutchison said.
The White House review panel is holding its first public hearing Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and will visit Houston in July.
“My hope is that we will continue to keep our commitment to manned space flight,” says Sen. John Cornyn, R-San Antonio.
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