Open Letter to Congress supporting Commercial Spaceflight


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You'd be shocked at the instutional abd political opposition to commercial space. It arises from politicians with NASA centers or legacy contractors in their states, unions for the govt workers who'll be displaced, companies with fat shuttle contracts etc. If it rattles the status quo & vested interests they howl like hell, even if they themselves havent come up with anything new in 35 years.

Credit where credit is due though - Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman have embraced the new paradigm, partnering where possible & supporting the NewSpace trade organizations.

It's ATK (makers of the shuttle SRB), politicians, unions and some others that are the sticks in the mud.

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screw them, like you said, what the hell have they been doing since the late 70's? Lockheed and Boeing...they have that whole UAL thing going on right now, right? heh sounds like the company from the Aliens/Avatar universe...and that's exactly what we need, people that will take us to Alpha Centaury in pursuit of the mighty dollar. the only ones i can sort of understand are the unions, at least they represent working people, but surely they realize opening up greater commercial exploitation will create millions upon millions of new jobs?

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ULA = United Launch Associates, a joint venture of Boeing & Lockheed Martin to launch their Delta and Atlas rockets. Independent, but depending on its parents for product - more a launch services outfit.

They have overhead issues vs. SpaceX, which is reflected in the cost of launches; $60m for a generic Falcon 9, $111m for a Dragon flight, $100m for a Falcon Heavy, >$200m for a basic Atlas V (NOT a Heavy) and >$300m for a Delta IV Heavy.

The union problem is with public employee locals. At NASA if the AC breaks they dont call out to a local repairman like any other business (SpaceX for example), they have 'em on staff for $35-40/hr before benefits. Lits of 'em. Add in the other trades and their infrastructure costs are mind boggling.

Move missions to outside companies who use contracted services and the public employee unions lose those members & their dues. They don't like that loss of potential campaign funds.

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isn't Nasa outsourcing some of their stuff (satellite launches) to Space X for example? infact According to SpaceX website both their upcoming 2011 launches are for Nasa

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SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract to resupply the ISS with Cargo Dragon's, carrying 3,000 kg pressurized, 3,000 kg unpressurized and several small satellites per launch.

The NASA COTS-1 flight in December not only tested Dragon but the MVac 2nd stage also inserted 8 other satellites and had enough guts left over to put itself into a 7,000+ mile high orbit.

The COTS-2 and 3 qualification flights are set for this summer and fall, but may be blended into a single flight because COTS-1 went far beyond textbook while coming within half a mile of landing on the recovery ships deck. It's said that a crew Dragon using thrusters will be able to set down on a helipad. By comparison a Soyuz TMA is (very) often lucky to come within 20-30 miles of its target.

Their shaired-launch customers include the military, the National Reconnaissance Office, OrbComm communications satellites and universities.

Then there are the DragonLab research flights, with rumors it could also fly X-37B style military missions; SpaceX has talked about a robotic arm for "manipulating" other satellites and it can already stay up 2+ years as a drone, 6 to 8 times longer than X-37B.

Yeah, the F9's gonna be busy.

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well, some of the logic behind using all in-house employees on NASA facilities is very sound. outside employees equal security nightmares up the wazoo.

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