JSC rescue: Senate bill bolstering manned space flight welcome news for Houston

From the Houston Chronicle: JSC rescue: Senate bill bolstering manned space flight welcome news for Houston

With a strong push by Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a compromise NASA funding bill won unanimous approval from a key committee and has good prospects for approval by Congress with support from the White House.

While it cancels a mission to the moon, it also would save key programs and thousands of jobs at Houston’s Johnson Space Center.

“The bill that we put out of committee today preserves our workforce, our creativity and the commitment to humans in space,” said Sen. Hutchison after the vote. The Texas Republican and Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, cosponsored the bipartisan effort to craft a budget with a more robust manned spaceflight component than that proposed by President Barack Obama.

There’s a lot for Houstonians to like in the $19 billion spending plan. While it cancels the Constellation program moon missions, it substitutes Mars and asteroids as long-term destinations. It will extend the life of the International Space Station through 2020, direct NASA to build a new heavy-lift launch rocket to be operational in six years, and continue development of the Orion crew exploration vehicle. At the same time it preserves the thrust of the Obama plan to support development of commercial launch crews to low Earth orbit.

In addition to saving most of the expected 7,000 layoffs at JSC under the Obama plan, the compromise would maintain the Clear Lake facility’s primacy as the center for astronaut training. According to Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, the Senate measure, if passed by Congress, would solidify JSC’s position as “the home of human space exploration.”

The Senate budget also provides for an extra space shuttle flight, extending the life of the program through next year. Sen. Hutchison has called for continuation of shuttle launch capabilities until an alternative launch craft is operational. We believe that is in the national interest and well worth the additional expense.

Otherwise, America will be dependent upon costly flights on Russian Soyuz craft for access to the space station and rescue missions in the event of an emergency there.

NASA officials have noted that the shuttle fleet remains in good flight condition and that safety is not an overriding concern.

In an interview with the Chronicle’s Eric Berger, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver called the compromise “a big step in the right direction.”

We agree, and urge legislators in both the House and Senate to move swiftly to provide essential funding to keep manned space exploration — and the Johnson Space Center — on track in the next decade.