Sat, Jul 17, 2010
Funding Provided For Commercial Crew, But Augustine Commission
Goals Not Met
Following Thursday's executive session of the Senate Commerce
Committee, the President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation,
Bretton Alexander, stated, "Thanks to Senators Warner, Boxer,
Udall, and Brownback, American industry won a victory today.
But this legislation must be improved so that we create more
sustainable American jobs, instead of exporting jobs to
Russia. This compromise committee bill represents progress
from the original draft, but there is still a long way to go to get
to where the Augustine Committee said NASA needs to be."
"We strongly supported Senator Warner's proposed amendment to
increase funding for, and remove needless restrictions on the
development of, commercial crew and cargo. We greatly
appreciate all that Senator Warner did to promote commercial
spaceflight and help the United States regain its human spaceflight
capability quickly." Alexander added, "Senator Boxer's
leadership has also been pivotal in securing improvements to the
bill."
Alexander (pictured) continued, "The Senate committee's
recognition that commercial systems, not government systems, will
be the primary means of crew transportation to the International
Space Station represents a milestone for our industry.
Instead of spending money to purchase seats on Russian launch
vehicles, the commercial industry will create jobs and critical
technological capabilities here in America through investment in
commercial spaceflight. I would also note that Senator Nelson
has stated that he intends to fund commercial crew fully over the
envisioned six-year timeframe for the program. Moving
forward, a firm Congressional commitment to commercial spaceflight
will be critical to enable industry to accelerate its rate of
hiring and job creation."
Alexander also applauded Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico,
saying, "The Senate Committee also adopted Senator Udall's
amendment specifying funding and support for NASA's innovative
Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) Program, which will
enable university students and researchers to fly science payloads
aboard new low-cost commercial suborbital vehicles whose
development is well underway."
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