Even city Mayors are now heading to Washington DC because of fears of thousands of Constellation cancellation job losses as the battle for US human spaceflight starts to become as emotionally charged as those health care reform arguments about alleged death panelsObama’s 15 April Florida space conference is a pretty big opportunity for protests by locals so the fact that that day is also the federal tax return deadline and so an important date for the tea bag party movement can only add to the potential murth – don’t let us down Daily Show!
And if it wasn’t surprising enough that there will be no end to Constellation until 2012 and a further $2.5 bilion spent on it even once it is cancelled, Aviation Week’s Frank Morring brings us the news that the $2.5 billion will not even begin to cover the true cost of shutting down the Moon return programme. How much of NASA’s future budgets will it consume in its death throes? Is this what former NASA administrator Michael Griffin meant by having a programme that could survive a change of administrations? You just make it too darn expensive to kill?
Meanwhile jobs threatened Marshall Space Flight Center is celebrating its 50th birthday soon and no doubt its workforce will be watching the webcast of this week’s hearing on commercial spaceflight
Based on previous Congressional Q&As for the “New Space” industry one wonders just how much of a seal pup clubbing contest this could become
