Buzz Aldrin visits White House

Anything Rocketry related from NASA, RUSSIAN FEDERAL SPACE AGENCY, Fantasy & Sci Fi
Post Reply
User avatar
bernomatic
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1169
Joined: Tue, 29 Mar 16, 03:55 am
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Contact:

#1 Buzz Aldrin visits White House

Post by bernomatic »

Buzz Aldrin visited the White House and talked to Vice President Pence.
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person ever to walk on the moon, stopped by the White House Friday (March 10) to talk space with Vice President Mike Pence.

Aldrin's visit, which Pence unveiled in a Twitter post, comes as President Donald Trump's administration works to develop a new space policy for NASA and other government agencies.

"Fun to host a true American explorer, Buzz Aldrin, at the @WhiteHouse as we work to shape the space policy of our administration," Pence wrote in the Twitter post. The statement was accompanied by a photo of Pence and Aldrin — decked out in American flag print socks and tie — in mid-conversation.
I still feel that the private sector is the way to go, but if we can regain our dominance in space as a nation, it's still good!

:arrow: article
Chief Cook -n- bottle washer
User avatar
luke strawwalker
Space Admiral
Space Admiral
Posts: 1543
Joined: Thu, 07 Apr 16, 04:45 am

#2 Re: Buzz Aldrin visits White House

Post by luke strawwalker »

Definitely agree... commercial IS the way to go. Problem is, it's not going to be a gubmint jobs program if they do that-- hence Congress's only grudging acceptance of commercial ANYTHING in spaceflight, and they they have CONSISTENTLY under-funded commercial spaceflight from its inception, be it under the commercial ISS resupply program (COTS) or commercial crew (CCDev, and whatever it's called now (NASA changes acronyms more than most folks change underwear).

NASA has sadly become too mired in politics, too entrenched in bureaucracy, too staffed with revolving-door aerospace/NASA management/gubmint service rotating employees/appointees, and too full of career "gubmint employees" with an entitlement complex to get anything meaningful done anymore. NASA human spaceflight is on life support and virtually a very expensive bad joke, and their "plans for the future" are somewhere between severe denial to absolutely delusional... And the agency seems QUITE CONTENT to continue with things "as is" regardless of whether they EVER actually accomplish ANYTHING...

The more time passes, the more I think it's time to divest NASA of ALL launch vehicle design/construction capability and contract ALL those needs from industry-- Ares I/V and SLS just prove the point, as if shuttle hadn't already proven it thoroughly over the last 30 years. NASA can design missions and hardware ESSENTIAL to the mission-- suits, habs, EVA gear, systems, spacecraft even (where no suitable commercial spacecraft or modifications thereof is available) and design the MISSION, but should rely on COMMERCIAL vehicles to launch those missions on contracted launch services. That would IMMEDIATELY free up BILLIONS in development money that NASA is wasting on efforts and infrastructure to support things like SLS, and allow them to instead focus on PAYLOADS and MISSIONS. NASA could then, in turn, "rent out" facilities like Michoud to assemble large launch vehicles, or Stennis's large test stands for engine/stage tests, etc. to their commercial launch providers, helping to defray the cost of contracted launches for NASA missions... just like they've "rented" Pad 39A to SpaceX (which has built a large hangar on the end of apron on top of the old crawlerway, making 39A essentially "forever off-limits" to crawler-born vehicles like SLS anyway-- I didn't know they were planning to do that-- I thought that when NASA rented SpaceX 39A it was basically for them to be able to conduct manned launches from there, and that similarly NASA might also choose to rent the facility to other commercial companies for launches of say the "CST-100" commercial Orion-lite clone flying on a manrated Atlas V-- that perhaps they would design it so SpaceX or CST-100 might have their own equivalent of the old "milkstools" used to launch Saturn IB's from Saturn V MLP's from 39A/B back in the 70's... I thought perhaps SpaceX and/or other commercial vehicle providers would have thier own "MLP add-ons" that would basically be attached to the top of a standard MLP (as the milkstool was, but made "removable" or "interchangeable" depending on what commercial company wanted to use the MLP and when, or they could have their own "basic MLP" with their own umbilicals, hold downs, TSM's, etc) that would then be placed on the pad via crawler, allowing multiple "commercial" users of the existing 39 A (and possibly even B if necessary) pads at the Cape as needed. As it stands, NASA has essentially 'sold' 39A to SpaceX, with a right to "buy it back" if they wanted (and can get a Congressional appropriation to do so), but they'll have to tear down SpaceX's hangar and remove the equipment to restore the crawlerway from the VAB to the 39A pad, which will require MORE gubmint money... So I think that, realistically, you can say basically they "sold" 39A to SpaceX, as the ONLY way I could EVER see the gubmint coughing up enough money to SpaceX to get it back AND spend the money to restore 39A to VAB/crawler supported launches of something like SLS (or its successor) is if they discovered an asteroid heading straight for us, 100% sure no doubt about it, with several decades of lead time for a mission to divert it with virtual assurance of its success, and whose mission absolutely depended upon it...

That's why I think that NASA's plans for Mars missions, at least under the current DRM-5 mission design, are a farce-- they'd have required SIX Ares V launches to get the equipment and propellant in orbit PLUS a crew flight on Ares I, and now all that has been transferred over to SLS (requiring the 130 metric tonne booster, which will probably take ANOTHER decade and many billions MORE to produce, as it will require an S-II equivalent "ascent stage", the completion of the in-space stage, PLUS advanced composite SRB's (or kerolox boosters ala Pyrios, which will almost certainly never happen in lieu of spending billions on ATK's new SRB's, despite the fact they'd be more enabling to the program and safer to boot). Trying to do that ALL out of one pad-- especially in short order-- HIGHLY unlikely... plus, as the Soviets discovered with N-1 (among other pad disasters or shortly after liftoff disasters over the years, which we've never had but certainly doesn't make their occurrence impossible!) a pad disaster or explosion shortly after liftoff, or crash back onto the pad can destroy a launch complex and require YEARS of work to correct-- in short, essentially requiring a new pad to be built, and with no alternatives, a vehicle like SLS would be grounded FOR YEARS, possibly FOREVER due to such a pad disaster...

I certainly hope that someone is listening to him... Buzz has had a lot of good ideas over the years, but nobody has ever seemed to be listening... or at least not taking it to heart... though I DO disagree with some of the Apollo astronaut's contentions that we should "go straight to Mars" and forego a return to the Moon-- "BTDT" doesn't track-- NASA had "BTDT" 50 years ago now-- but this isn't your grandfather's NASA anymore... the modern NASA hasn't been beyond Earth orbit in over 40 years... they have NO EXPERIENCE in sending people ANYWHERE beyond LEO-- sure they have the Apollo experience, but that's like saying "I read a history book" so I could build a pyramid, fly a B-29 to bomb Tokyo, or operate an Apollo lander... it doesn't track...

Later! OL J R :)
My MUNIFICENCE is BOUNDLESS, Mr. Bond...
Post Reply