Johnson Space Center's future relies on moon program compromise

Johnson Space Center's future relies on moon program compromise

WASHINGTON — The political potshots have subsided and the serious horse-trading lies ahead as the White House and Congress grind toward a compromise to salvage parts of the NASA moon program crucial to Houston's Johnson Space Center.

The legislative end-game is up in the air, as is any clear date to declare success or defeat. But the mood surrounding the space program in the nation's capital has shifted from seizing partisan advantage to pursuing at least some political pragmatism.

The predictable uproar in NASA-dependent states that greeted President Barack Obama's proposal to cancel the $108 billion Constellation program and the jobs that go with it has broadened geographically into a both a Republican and Democrat drive on Capitol Hill to protect features of the nation's legendary program of manned space exploration.

Obama critics have gained momentum by seizing on NASA's sacking of outspoken Constellation program manager Jeff Hanley, rumors of NASA attempting to cancel existing contracts in violation of congressional language, and the administration's targeted workforce transition assistance for the electoral battleground of Florida rather than all states potentially affected by NASA layoffs.

Schizoid situation feared
“What's changed is that lawmakers without a direct constituent stake in the space program now want a deal with the White House,” says space program historian John Logsdon, former head of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. “Everyone recognizes that it's untenable to have a schizoid situation where the White House wants to kill the moon program and Congress wants to save it. They're searching for common ground.”

Reps. Gene Green, D-Houston, and John Culberson, R-Houston, are helping to orchestrate the effort by 33 House members from eight states urging Obama to abandon cancellation of the back-to-the-moon program.

Lawmakers' conciliatory approach contrasts with catcall rhetoric initially unleashed by disappointed space-state Republicans who accused Obama of imperiling national security and control of the high ground in space. The shuttle fleet is expected to retire this year, leaving NASA to rely on Russians to ferry astronauts into orbit.

Obama proposed shifting NASA's marquee mission from a return to the moon to fostering a commercial spacecraft industry with $6 billion in taxpayers' money.

“We look forward to working with you in the coming weeks to make the necessary changes (to the White House budget proposal) in order to support an exploration program that continues our elite astronaut corps, preserves an irreplaceable workforce, protects our defense industrial base and ensures that the U.S. will leave low-earth orbit within the decade,” the lawmakers tell the president in a letter to be delivered to the White House Friday.

‘A good response'
The letter signed by lawmakers from Texas, Virginia, Maryland, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, Ohio and Missouri is “getting a good response” because it lays out both a bipartisan and a multi-state perspective, says Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands.”

Richard Weiss, spokesman for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, did not return a phone call seeking comment. Officials at NASA headquarters declined to discuss potential bargaining with Congress.

So far, the White House and Congress are sketching trade-offs from afar.

Obama has adjusted the plan he unveiled in February to cancel Constellation and the deep-space Orion crew capsule. He has suggested the crew capsule serve as a stand-by rescue vehicle attached to the orbiting space station as work continues on a deep space vehicle to reach asteroids by 2025 and to orbit Mars in the 2030s.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has responded to pressure from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Dallas, and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., for a two-year extension of shuttle operations beyond scheduled retirement in November by signaling NASA's willingness to convert an emergency stand-by shuttle mission into an add-on cargo flight to the station next year.

More worker assistance
Bolden also hinted that the $40 million in workforce transition assistance promised workers along Florida's Space Coast could be expanded to include other NASA facilities facing potential layoffs or contract cancellations.

The Obama administration also may become flexible on the proposal for a commercial spacecraft industry in the face of congressional resistance. The president has suggested using private spacecraft built by entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk or space contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, instead of NASA spacecraft, to ferry crew and cargo to the orbiting space station through 2020.

Scott Pace, a former NASA official directing the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, says he can foresee a compromise in which Congress maintains development of NASA's Ares I system to reach low Earth orbit and simultaneously underwrites efforts for rockets built by private firms.

For all the wrangling ahead, outside experts say Congress will not have easy time of overturning Obama's vision for NASA.

Congress routinely overrides presidential decisions to cancel cherished Pentagon weapons programs but it “has never before gotten into this degree of specifics on the technical content of the space program,” says Logsdon, a long-time NASA adviser. “This is unprecedented.”