NASA Puts A Sudden Near-Halt On The Constellation Program
Posted by Michael_Byrne on Thursday, Jun 10, 2010
The Obama administration by way of NASA by way of a complicated funding rule involving contractors may have put an early end—or close to it—to the Constellation program, e.g. the moon program. The technical details are rather hard to explain, but it appears to be a back-door attempt to neuter Constellation by forcing a cut-back of nearly $1-billion dollars in contractor spending. Estimates are that some 5,000 jobs will be lost between Utah and Florida within the next month. The Ares I rocket, planned to be a ferry to the International Space Station and eventually the moon, is cut off entirely, as of right now.
The end of the Constellation program was something in the works anyhow, but there’s been a fair amount of behind-the-scenes jockeying and bickering involved. This is a short-cut.
From PhysOrg:
Members of Congress from states that will be hardest hit, including Utah and Alabama, support ATK and other contractors. They accuse the administration of using the federal spending rules to undermine a congressional prohibition — passed last year — that blocks NASA from holding back any contract payments for Constellation in this fiscal year.
“This latest attempt by the administration to force an early termination of the Constellation program is nothing more than a disingenuous legal maneuver to circumvent statutory language that was put in place to prevent this very type of action,” said U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah. “Hurting our national defense capabilities and industrial base are examples of the long-term collateral damage that will come as a result of this administration’s destructive and dangerous political agenda.”
NASA spokesman Jacobs rejected charges that the decision was a backdoor effort to cancel Constellation, saying that the agency is legally compelled to cut back spending now, no matter what happens to the program.
Read more here.
Image: birgit_pauli. The Ares I launching tower under construction.
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Michael covers physics, climate science, the future of music, and assorted things fallen through cracks at Motherboard. A native of Colorado, Michigan, and Oregon, he currently resides in Baltimore...
