Bennett, Hatch seek to save Constellation program, Utah jobs

WASHINGTON — Utah's U.S. senators charged Thursday that President Barack Obama's proposal to cancel the Constellation program to return to the moon and Mars violates the law, costs too much, is not supported by science and will destroy America's rocket manufacturing capabilities.

Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, made those statements in a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, hoping to convince Senate appropriators to reject Obama's proposals and keep Constellation and its Ares rocket programs alive, which would save 2,000 Utah jobs at Alliant Techsystems.

However, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said their arguments are flawed, and he made his own spirited pitch for funding Obama's proposal to switch to commercial takeover of rocket making.

Bennett told Bolden after his presentation, "I'm a businessman. If I were sitting on the board of directors and you were making this pitch … as to the direction you were going to take the company, I'd tell you that you haven't made the sale."

He added, "The four areas where I think you haven't made the sale are No. 1, the science; No. 2, protecting the industrial base; No. 3, the money; and No. 4, the law."

On science, Bennett blasted Bolden for saying that the Ares I rocket being developed by ATK has no proven demonstrated reliability. Bennett held up an issue of Time magazine that proclaimed it the invention of the year, and talked about how a test flight last year dazzled even its skeptics.

Bolden said that was an early prototype, mostly testing aerodynamics. But Bennett said Ares is still years ahead of yet-to-be-built commercial rockets that Obama wants to use.

Next, Bennett said Obama's plan calls for deciding whether to build the Ares V heavy lift rocket in 2015. But Bennett said if the Ares I is killed now, "you shut down the industrial base of solid rocket motors, and there will be no contractors available in 2015." He said it will also hurt America's ability to build military missiles.

Bolden said the solid rocket industry has been much bigger than needed. "The business decision that needs to be made by the only company legitimately in that industry right now (ATK) is how do I downsize if they want to be competitive," he said.