This year, the US Congress is working to re-authorize NASA, which includes re-visiting the funding authorization and overall strategy. As part of that, the House Science Subcommittee on Space produced a draft bill recently. On the issue of Commercial Crew, the draft bill showed promise, as it authorized $700 Million for the program. However, the subcommittee put ISS acces in danger by requiring the program to be run using a cost contract, rather than a commercial fixed-price contract, or even better–a Space Act Agreement. Fortunately, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who is Vice Chair of the full Science Committee, is pushing back.
Quoting the Congressman, “Forcing Commercial Crew into a “cost-type” contract, as Section 215 would do, would undermine all of the benefits the program is designed to bring. That would result in rising prices, delayed availability, and subjecting the systems to potentially unending “requirements creep” which is something that we all want to avoid.”
The Space Frontier Foundation wants to give a big “Huzzah!” to Congressman Rohrabacher, for helping to ensure that Commercial Crew can be successful.
“The Foundation is very glad to see the Congressman continue his long-standing support to ensure a successful program. We are honored to have him speaking at our conference, NewSpace 2013, and encourage everyone to listen in to his speech during the conference.” said Ryan McClinko, Chair of the NewSpace 2013 Conference.
