It looks like Congress’s insistence that NASA start building a heavy-lift vehicle now is leading the agency toward a very expensive dead-end project that will cost $11 billion but do little to advance that august body’s supposed goal of sending humans out beyond Earth orbit. Chris Bergin over at NASASpaceflight.com has a detailed explanation here; Henry Vanderbilt of the Space Access Society has provided this more succinct summary:

Early word is, it’s an UGLY plan (a good match for the mandate):  Have the existing contractors build a hasty 70-ton payload Shuttle-Derived launcher using a pair of old-style 4-segment solids and three surplus Space Shuttle Main Engines, then fly this four times starting in 2016 (using up the existing SSMEs.)  Then, after spending $11.5 billion (ignoring the near-certain overruns) for just four flights, shut this project down and start all over, with a “competition” between several different 130-ton capacity heavy lifter concepts.

Dumber than dirt? Absolutely. But, it’s perhaps the only way that NASA can try to meet the Congressional mandate to build a HLV it doesn’t immediately need using space shuttle technology it is trying to abandon by an unrealistic deadline. And because it doesn’t produce a 130-ton vehicle by the end of 2016 as Congress mandates, the plan doesn’t even really do that.

Vanderbilt has sent out an action alert urging people to call their Congressmen urging them to oppose the Space Launch System program as currently configured and allow NASA to hold an open competition to solicit proposals for a new HLV. It is reproduced in full after the break.

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SWF PR — Secure World Foundation is pleased to announce that Dr. Michael Simpson will join the staff of the Foundation, taking on the position of Senior Program Officer.

Simpson comes to the Secure World Foundation after serving more than seven years as President of the International Space University (ISU), based in Strasbourg, France.

“I am delighted to be joining the Secure World Foundation team,” Simpson said. “The human experience of space will be so much better in an environment of peaceful and sustainable access, and no one is more committed to making this possible than the Foundation.”

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This week in The Space Review…. Funding the seed corn of advanced space technology The final NASA fiscal year 2011 funding bill provided no explicit funding for space technology activities, a key element of the agency’s future plans. Lou Friedman says that without such investment, it will become increasingly difficult to make new advances in robotic or human space exploration. Commercial crew’s final four Last week NASA announced that four […]

Some news from SpaceX: This Thursday at 11:00 AM EST, SpaceX will be participating in a NASA press briefing on Commercial Crew Development at the Kennedy Space Center.  The briefing will be shown live on NASA TV and webcast at https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html  

Steve Huber presents the lander primary structure design and test set up for Astrobotic’s lunar lander.

The Parabolic people have spoken — and it doesn’t look good for Sarah Palin. Asked whether the half-term governor and ex-reality show star would ascend to the Presidency, most of you were pessimistic about her becoming America’s Commander-in-Chief. Only 15 percent of you voted for that outcome, leaving that possibility a shade behind Family Feud host and slightly ahead of America’s Got Talent judge. All of these possibilities lagged far […]

NanoRacks PR — The Fisher Institute for Strategic Air and Space Studies signed a contract with NanoRacks to pursue cooperation in the field of space exploration. The first project resulting from this agreement is Israel’s expected participation on the cube payload laboratory of NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final mission, STS-134.

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Artist's conception of Obital Sciences Corporation's Taurus II rocket set for launch at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia.

ATK PR — ATK (NYSE:ATK – News) was awarded a $57 million contract to provide the CASTOR® 30XL, an upgraded second stage motor for Orbital Science Corporation’s (NYSE:ORB – News) Taurus® II commercial launch vehicle, which will supply cargo for NASA to the International Space Station.

The CASTOR 30XL is a larger and higher-performance solid rocket motor, with greater payload capability than the CASTOR® 30A, which is used on the current configuration of the Taurus II. “The CASTOR® 30XL is another important addition to our expanding portfolio of commercial propulsion products, which include the GEM, Orion, and CASTOR® solid rocket motor lines.” said Scott Lehr, ATK Aerospace Systems vice president and general manager of Strategic and Commercial Systems. “We leveraged our heritage flight-proven and cost-effective technologies to develop a customized, higher-performing second stage solution for Orbital’s Taurus II launch vehicle.”

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ISRO PR — In its 17th consecutive successful flight, Indias Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C16) injected three Satellites viz. RESOURCESAT-2, YOUTHSAT and X-SAT (of Nanyang Technical University, Singapore) into their intended Polar Sun-synchronous orbits on April 20, 2011 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota. All the three satellites were placed in the targeted orbits with high precision.

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NASA has committed to awarding nearly $1 billion in development funds to companies participating in its commercial cargo and crew programs, according to Parabolic Arc’s review of agency documents and company statements. That total could cross the billion dollar mark this year if NASA agrees to make payments for additional milestones accomplished by the companies.

The table below shows what NASA has committed to provide companies under its COTS and CCDev programs if they meet all designated milestones under their Space Act Agreements. CCDEv 1 funding has been paid out in full along with much of the initial COTS funding. The CCDev 2 and Additional COTS awards represent future payments.

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This week on The Space Show…. Monday, April 25, 2011 , 2-3:30 PM PDT. We welcome back former astronaut and planetary scientist Dr. Thomas Jones. We will be discussing the shuttle’s retirement and much more. Tuesday, April 26, 2011, 7-8:30 PM PDT. We welcome former NASA Administrator Dr. Mike Griffin to the program. I will be assisted in this discussion on the engineering and technical issues by Dr. John Jurist, […]

This week in The Space Review…. Funding the seed corn of advanced space technology The final NASA fiscal year 2011 funding bill provided no explicit funding for space technology activities, a key element of the agency’s future plans. Lou Friedman says that without such investment, it will become increasingly difficult to make new advances in robotic or human space exploration. Commercial crew’s final four Last week NASA announced that four […]