House Science Committee Chairwoman Johnson “Disappointed” with NASA Human Landing System Award
WASHINGTON (House Science Committee PR) — Today, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced it has selected SpaceX to continue development of the Human Landing System (HLS) that will transport astronauts to the lunar surface under the Artemis program.
Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) made the following statement.
“I am disappointed that the Acting NASA leadership decided to make such a consequential award prior to the arrival of a new permanent NASA Administrator and Deputy Administrator. The decision to make the award today also comes despite the obvious need for a re-baselining of NASA’s lunar exploration program, which has no realistic chance of returning U.S. astronauts to the Moon by 2024. While work continues on the upcoming Artemis-1 mission, it will be critically important for the new NASA leadership team to carry out its own review of all elements of NASA’s Moon-Mars initiative to ensure that this major national undertaking is put on a sound footing.”
63 responses to “House Science Committee Chairwoman Johnson “Disappointed” with NASA Human Landing System Award”
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Alternate headline: 85 Year Old Congress Critter Doesn’t Know What State She’s From
should’ve gave NASA some of that stimulus money.
which has no realistic chance of returning U.S. astronauts to the Moon by 2024.
Well, there’s truth here.
Perhaps, if it’s NASA and they insist on using SLS. But Dragon2 might surprise some folks if SpaceX gets creative with it.
Remember it may be possible to send it to lunar orbit via the Falcon Heavy. Yes, they would have to human rate the Falcon Heavy and upgrade the Dragon2 into a deep space Dragon3, but there are no technical barriers to either and both probably could be done at a fraction of the cost of an SLS launch.
Or SpaceX could just build a passenger-capable Starship that can also do Earth returns over the same interval and let the Falcon-era stuff be.
That very much remains to be seen. I can certainly see why EBJ would think that to be true, but then she has long made a specialty out of being wrong.
“I am disappointed that the Acting NASA leadership decided to make such a consequential award prior to the arrival of a new permanent NASA Administrator and Deputy Administrator.”
There is hope yet if the shiny keeps blowing up. Considering the libraries of death-to-SLS comments written over the years without result perhaps there will be justice and soon the people actually pulling on purse strings will announce, “NASA is cancelling the Starship Lunar Lander contract due to development problems.”
I am praying for that every day now. This was such a blatant back-room deal it is impossible it will not turn into a scandal in the future. And that will hopefully be the end of the Musk’s latest hobby project. It is nothing more than an iteration of the Space Shuttle that instead of wasting payload on wings and landing gear wastes even more on making the external tank part of the Orbiter and bringing it all back down. A bizarre twist in that it is an even worse design than the Space Shuttle. But due to the spacex P.R. machine and a decade of propaganda and false advertising, the public is falling for it.
What is so obvious to anyone NOT a fanboy and with any technical knowledge about rockets is this refueling in orbit miracle from 6 other shiny tankers required to turn the starship into both an Earth Departure Stage and a Lunar Lander….is idiotic. Yet NASA signed off on it.
Maybe Bridenstine knew the fix was in, that Musk’s agents were calling the shots, and decided to depart instead of staying on. This is very bad news for the U.S. space program. A huge red flag.
There is the small chance this could turn out well with a radically redesigned shiny. But much larger engines and Rombus-type external tanks being added would not really be a redesign and would instead be a new design. Not likely.
“I am praying for that every day now.”
SpaceX’s odds are improving by the day given Gary’s track record.
That you incessantly dog-whistle and troll me for simply expressing my views is proof that you, and your Musk worshiping creepy gang of cyberthugs, are disgusting borderline sociopaths that have hijacked these forums and inestimably damaged pubic opinion about space.
You are garbage and your sock puppets will be along shortly.
Maybe more fiber will help your disposition?
Your gang always poisons the well. There is simply no other option than to mock and denigrate anyone exposing the NewSpace infomercial. It is what you must do.
How many drafts do you need to say the same thing?
You have nothing to say except personal insults and harassment. Like I said, it is what you must do.
It must have hurt being wrong about CRS-7 being the end, AMOS-6 being the end, crew never flying on Dragon, USAF never flying on Falcon, FH never flying, booster reuse not working. I get it, devoting your entire life to a cause and being so bad at predicting industry outcomes must be a huge cross to bear.
Lol….you are cyberstalking me and you think it is great fun.
It is what you are. The lowest of the low in mommies basement. Duheagle, sejones, and a couple dozen others…all borderline sociopaths. Sick.
How many hundreds or even thousands of visitors over the years have scanned the comments on these forums and lost all interest in space because of the fanboy clowns posting their toxic trash here?
Gary, you come across like cheap cologne. Look in the mirror on repulsive nature.
Doxing, disrespecting the dead, scatological insults….that’s all you.
Repulsive toxic trolling is what you spend your time doing here. Anyone can read it and see you for what you are. Truth.
That you will not allow me to express my views without harassing me is the proof.
Relax big boy no one doxed you. You doxed yourself by using the same phraseology across accounts with your real name and sock puppet accounts. Even kindergarten ML could figure that out.
“scatological insults”
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Doth Protest Too Much
-given Gary’s track record.
Mr Snarky Answer Richard Seaton • 8 hours ago • edited
Maybe more fiber will help your disposition?
You lie like the rest of us breathe, are the lowest of the low, and simply cannot stop yourself. Sick malicious troll. Doug should ban you.
Haha, dietary recommendations and the importance of fiber is scatological?
Haha….disgusting troll. Cyberstalking and harassing me endlessly…anybody can see what the fanboys are doing here and on every forum where space is “discussed.” Your gang has turned any discourse into an infomercial and anyone not part of it is trolled. Disgusting creeps.
Disrespecting the dead? Have you joined the ranks of Necro-American Democrat voters?
If the free speech of others offends you, you can always just stay away.
You are cyberstalking and should be banned.
Don’t know.
Do *you* have actual, supportable, numbers…?
Go away. Dogpile somewhere else.
So you don’t really know if that second paragraph’s true, either. Okay.
No…not Okay. Go away fanboy and harass someone else.
That’s Gary-speak for “No.”
You are cyberstalking me and should be banned.
How many do you think? And why, if they also read your cogent and persuasive ripostes, haven’t hey stuck around anyway and cheered you on? Even lurkers can up-vote if they get themselves a user ID. But nearly the only up-votes you ever seem to get are self-awarded by your various sock puppets.
You are cyberstalking me and need to be banned, along with a half a dozen other fanboys that harass me here. Doug needs to do something.
Gary’s comments are like political spot ads – all the same and with no further impact after the first one or two repetitions. As for his tone, I’ll borrow one of his own words and note that he’s the antithesis of Dale Carnegie.
Anyone who disagrees with the NewSpace Mob gets called Gary. It’s the dog-whistle that calls out the trolls from their disgusting cesspits to all pile on and suppress the truth.
I see that Gary has now dropped the pretense that he was “Richard Seaton” and is now commenting under his actual name. I have to regard that as progress. Next up? Killing off all you transparently obvious sock puppets.
Maybe next time when BO and Dynetics bid on a contract they will make sure they don’t have solicitation violations.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Maybe your fanboy garbage is meaningless.
It was taken right from the NASA source selection statement. 🙂 Did you not review the NASA source selection statement for HLS?
Nothing to do with my comment- your reply is meant to troll me.
You and the fanboys simply have to poison the well- you will not let anyone comment negatively about spacex without smearing it with nonsense.
“This was such a blatant back-room deal it is impossible it will not turn into a scandal in the future. ” It was in rebuttal to your comment above, so yeah it was right on point. Your claimed nonsense is taken right from the NASA Source Selection Statement for HLS. SpaceX’s competitors couldn’t even get their bids correct. If you read through the Source Selection statement you can see why SpaceX won. Even if you remove price as a factor SpaceX still wins. I really dislike your use of the term “fanboy” when the root cause is a difference of opinion. Thank you for removing your earlier comments.
No…not a “rebuttal”- you are trolling me you fanboy creep. Go away.
Gary believes that Musk secretly is in charge of NASA through “backroom deals” and is responsible for NASA not having serious moon return plans until SpaceX had a “moon rocket” in development. From that conspiracy-theorist driven point of view, NASA’s analysis of the bids would be Elon Musk “fanboy garbage.”
Troll. “Gary Believes-” is disgusting creepy harassment. You are the lowest of the low. Lying like the rest of us breathe.
Thanks for posting that, interesting!
It’s been a bad few years for you. The next few are going to be even worse.
Troll, Trumpist/Musk worshiper, cyberstalker, creep. You need to be banned.
Actually Dallas is only 100 miles closer to Boca Chica than Huntsville, so maybe Rep. Johnson thinks it isn’t in Texas. In any case it’s not in her district.
Neither is Huntsville. The Johnson Space Center gets to send its astronauts either way.
“-NASA’s Moon-Mars initiative-“
Mars has always been the snake-oil scam poisoning the entire space program.
It is, like LEO, a complete dead end.
The Moon is the place to go to build factories that will eventually enable humankind to expand into the solar system. Space Solar Power is the economic engine to accomplish colonization, as foreseen by Gerard K. O’Neill. Musk is the anti-thesis of O’Neill; the worst thing that could have happened to space exploration.
Can’t I be an O’Neill Fanboy and a Musk Fanboy? Please don’t make me choose.
Sorry. Look up the meaning of “Anti-thesis.” You should have done that in the first place and then you would not have needed to ask me. But you knew…just trolling me like the rest of the gang here. Sad.
Not trolling…just engaging in conversation. But I do like to keep it light-hearted.
You are just dogpiling on with the rest of the trolls.
The classic “I was only joking” troll.
Actually “disappointed” is pretty mild reaction given she has been against HLS from the start and tried to kill the entire program last year using H.R. 5666.
If she expects Nelson to change things, I think she’ll be disappointed again, SpaceX has a large presence in Florida (they even tried to build MK2 there, could see a 2nd Starship factory in Florida), and it’s pretty clear this selection has Biden administration’s backing.
I think what happened with the HLS selection is entirely due to institutional inertia. Important decisions made last year, set events in motion that played out with HLS this month. SpaceX winning the HLS might be seen as the last gasp of the prior administrations space policy in action.
The legal processes of HLS selection limited anyone interfering. We really don’t know in any detail yet what the Biden NASA policy is. It could still change radically from the past administration.
The fact that mister SLS, ex-Senator Nelson, is the new incoming NASA administrator is not a positive indicator. Biden, Nelson, and the new Congress might just upend Project Artemis by law, and HR 5666 might actually reflect the new space policy.
We might not know the actual outlines of future NASA policy until the end of the year, when all the new politicians have hashed things out to a conclusion. Remember that it wasn’t until early 2010, that we saw what became of the George W Bush space policy.
SLS delenda est
the Biden administration has shown an amazing ability to walk away from things that are failing…and this is the start of that in space. I really think politically the trick here is that this is the competitor to SLS…if all they wanted was a lander they would have worked something with the other two teams to get some deal…because neither of them required development of a rocket
this one does…a very big rocket…I think that this is the Biden folks working an off ramp to SLS
Interesting thoughts. I’m not sure if ditching SLS is the plan…but it may very well be the result.
There is a tide in the affairs of men…
You and I have opposite views of the Biden administration.
I take NASA at their word about why they selected Starship. Any hidden interference by Biden people might have put them in legal jeopardy. Remember what happened to Doug Loverro? Besides, I really doubt mister SLS, Bill Nelson, was working behind the scenes to kill his pet SLS.
If Biden people are working to rid NASA of SLS, selection of the Starship would be a bizarre way to do it, upending the entire Project Artemis plans and architecture. Besides, there is a simpler and much lower risk way to replace SLS than dependence on the iffy Starship project, simple procurement of the existing Falcon Heavy.
Perhaps the Biden people will just go along with what NASA just handed them. Perhaps not. So far nothing but negative response has come from Congress. Since mister SLS himself is soon to have his confirmation hearing for NASA administrator, then we might get our first clues as to what the Biden administration really intends for NASA.
Because as things stand today, HR 5666 is entirely compatible with everything the Biden people have said so far, and with the Biden campaign platform.
SLS delenda est
I have no real knowledge, I just am reading tea leaves
If the Biden administration was going to phase out SLS this is exactly how they would do it with the least political harm.
So far on big decisions the Biden folks have relied not so much on the experts in the various departments but on Biden internal decision making. this is illustrated by the Afghan decision.
this makes it easy for Nelson. its not his decision he had nothing to do with it, so its a done deal.. I doubt Nelson was hired for his space acuem but rather his ability to work the Senate and the House…and salute as a soldier would and carry on
Plus if it works, it kills SLS without killing it. SLS development continues, we might even see a flight soon. but in the end, where the competition is is now with Starship…and really as SLS flies infrequently, the flights by Starship will become the defacto NASA space program
nelson can always argue that if you want another lander program…you need to either give more money (which they wont do) or cancel SLS…
at the confirmation hearings yes we will get our first clues…but I suspect the Biden administration has made the decision about the moon landing. they want a program, one they can afford, but they dont want one that fast which is risky…
we will see…but so far “I am happy” 🙂
As I type this, there are fewer than four hours remaining before the Nelson hearing starts. I intend to watch live. I’ll be looking for any “tea leaves” that show themselves too. I don’t expect Nelson to become a born-again NewSpace fanboy, but it would be nice if he was at least not setting himself up to be a problem.
I hope you’re right. Perhaps Biden’s space policy, like Obama’s, will wind up being the only policy kernel of corn in what is otherwise a barrel of policy rat shit.
Too bad 😛