I wrote last week about the worries among some policymakers that the U.S. will depend on Russia to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station from 2010-2015. Today it’s reported that Lockheed and Boeing are pressing Congress to appropriate $2 billion to speed the development of the Space Shuttle successor Orion, through the Space Alliance, which they lead:
Aerospace companies are using memories of the Cold War and the prospect of American astronauts having to hitch a ride on a Russian rocket to push Congress to increase NASA’s budget. Unless lawmakers follow through, there will be a five-year gap in U.S. manned flight capabilities from the time the Space Shuttle is retired in 2010 to when the Constellation rocket program, which will carry astronauts to the moon and Mars, is ready for launch. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, the concern is less about national security and proving which country’s worldview is correct than it is with more terrestrial worries like money and jobs.
Interestingly, the gap may create an opportunity for NASA to outsource important space station supply work to a private company:
Even under the gap, NASA still expects to be able to deliver cargo to the space station. SpaceX is one of two companies under contract to build a rocket to carry supplies to low-Earth orbit and the ISS under a program called Commercial Orbital Transportation Services. The company is scheduled to be able to deliver cargo starting in 2011. But SpaceX is urging Congress to pay for a $308 million follow-on program that funds an upgrade to the cargo rockets so they can carry astronauts as well. Not all of that money would have to be appropriated next year.
How cool would it be if — rather than being ferried to the Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule — American astronauts traveled there through the genius of the American private sector? The founder of SpaceX is Elon Musk — who also created PayPal and Tesla. If SpaceX steps into the vacuum here, Musk would qualify as a pretty extraordinary American success story — especially since (like so many other American success stories) he wasn’t born in the U.S.
