Texas Republican Rep. Ralph M. Hall, the chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, released a statement Thursday announcing increased congressional oversight of NASA’s development of human spaceflight programs.
Hall’s statement derided the Obama administration for canceling the costly Constellation program, a Bush-era initiative intended to replace the space shuttle’s role in human spaceflight.
“We must work to restore U.S. capability to get American astronauts to and from the International Space Station, once the shuttle is retired later this year,” said Hall. “And I’m not convinced that the commercial market is ready to fill that role.”
“If they should fail, we will have no option but to continue buying seats from the Russians, an option I find unacceptable,” Hall said.
President Obama encouraged the Constellation program to be canceled because of its multi-billion dollar cost. In October 2010, Obama signed the Reauthorization Act of 2010, canceling the program.
“It was this administration that killed the Constellation program, which Congress had repeatedly endorsed,” Hall said. “Instead of providing the resources that the Augustine Committee said were necessary to have a program worthy of a great nation, this administration simply said it was unaffordable.”
Despite the program’s cancellation, some big-ticket items within the Constellation program continue to receive funding, despite uncertainty of their future.
One massive expenditure is the Ares I rocket program, which continues to be funded despite unlikely future use. Due to the continuing resolution passed in December to keep the government running in lieu of a 2011 budget, funding for the program must continue under the 2010 budget until at least March.
The 2010 budget included a provision inserted by Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby to continue funding to the Ares I rocket program, prohibiting NASA from ending the program.
According to the 2009 Augustine committee report, “the committee estimates that the Ares I vehicle planned to transport humans to low-Earth orbit will not be available until two years after the [International Space Station] ceases to operate under the current plan. In this case, there would be several years with no U.S. human spaceflight activity at all.”
The committee further wrote, “Its ultimate utility is diminished by schedule delays, which cause a mismatch with the programs it is intended to serve,” noting that the original date the rocket was expected to be ready was pushed back from 2012 to a likely date around 2017.
NASA Inspector General Paul K. Martin wrote letters to Congressman Hall and others on Thursday calling their attention to the unnecessary expenditures, writing that the situation “requires immediate action by Congress.”
“Without congressional intervention, by the end of February 2011 NASA anticipates spending up to $215 million on Constellation projects that, absent the restrictive appropriations language, it would have considered canceling or significantly scaling back,” wrote Martin.
The continuing resolution funding the government, Martin wrote, “carries over … restrictions and prohibits initiation of new projects, NASA is continuing to spend approximately $200 million each month on the Constellation Program, aspects of which both NASA and Congress have agreed not to build.”
Hall’s statement responded, in part, to Martin’s call for urgent action to prevent wasteful spending. Hall wrote, “NASA should be taking steps to prioritize spending on projects that are likely to have applicability in a future heavy lift vehicle, in an effort to maintain production lines and reduce inefficient use of taxpayer funds.” Hall further stated, “I agree with the NASA OIG that this is an issue that the Appropriators will need to deal with in an expedient manner, in order to avoid wasteful spending.”
Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson has reportedly written legislation to repeal the provision that currently mandates spending on the Constellation program.