American Space Access Act

[Arrowstar]

So I happened to be poking around the Library of Congress website, as I occasionally do, and (one thing leading to another) ended up reading HR 1962, the so-called American Space Access Act. This is the legislation that would allow the shuttle to fly until 1015 or whenever Orion or US commercial space flight began. For better or worse, does anyone know if this bill has any chance of making it to the House floor, or does it appear it will be killed in committee?

Text: HR 1962

Just curious.

 

[insanity]

I would imagine that the Administration will make their decision on the space program before legislation was actually debated. I can't imagine the leadership of the House trying to force the Administration's hand on space policy. Once the administration makes a decision, I'd imagine that this would try to be worked in by way of amendment.

 

[Arrowstar]

Huh, interesting. So I wonder what the point of introducing the bill is, if the House would naturally wait for the administration make a decision in any event. Or perhaps it was just two rouge congressmen looking to try and get something done.

 

[JamesG]

Everything is politics.

Well they are Florida reps. so they aren't exactly doing this for the hell of it. The STS program supports alot of jobs in the KSC area.

I think if they can get this pushed thru congress and senate, I can't see Obama nuking it. It would piss off alot of voters in central Florida just in time fore the mid-term elections, and they would be in the middle of the "lean years" of no shuttles and a sputtering (canceled?) Aries program in 2012 and FL is a battle ground state.

 

[BHawthorne]

Are they Republican jobs or Democrat jobs? That's the unspoken question that'll answer if it happens or not.

 

[ijuin]

The other question is one of whether the funds will be provided by Congress to pay for continued Shuttle operations, or will NASA have to fund it out of the money that was to be spent on Ares/Orion development?

 

[JamesG]

At this point, it would be "both".

Are they Republican jobs or Democrat jobs? That's the unspoken question that'll answer if it happens or not.

Doesn't matter. Whom ever gets the blame for killing the shuttle will throw the region to the other party, possibly altering which way it will go in congressional or even presidential elections.

I'm sure Obama would love to can the STS and probably throttle back the entire manned space program, but the DNC is going to think twice before handing the Republicans a sweet bit like "Obama killed Aerospace jobs in the middle of a recession".