Comments about ‘Save NASA's Constellation by slowing it, House members from Utah urge’

Just because Constellation was funded at levels inadequate to meet the extremely challenging deadlines is no reason to throw it out. It makes far more sense to place the deadlines farther in the future and continue this prudent and valuable work. Otherwise, the United States is in danger of losing its leadership position in manned space exploration -- and, by extension, other scientific endeavors.

The Constellation Project is flawed technology and NASA is not capable of purchasing space flight systems at a reasonable cost. In fact NASA Projects such as Delta IV and Atlas 5 are unaffordable, and so is Constellation.
NASA needs to go away completely as they cannot manage costs or Technical challenges. The Space Shuttle never met cost or reliability requirements, and unfortunately neither would Constellation.

Atlas was man-rated and flew 50 years ago.
[Remember John Glenn and Mercury?]
And has been the back-bone of commercial launches for decades. 3 times safer and more than dependable as the shuttles.

Delta IV can be modified and man-rated in 20 months.

Pennies on the dollar.

If we are just trying to be cost effective, I presume the "right" answer is to just buy Soyuz flights from the Russians. That is obviously much cheaper than developing our own launcher. But, to expect Private Enterprise to pick up the check - can that happen?

I, for one, would love to see DC-X come back. That, with some real funding, might be the answer.

Constellation should not be elliminated just because a group of politicians lack the necessary skills to comprehend the difficulty of manned space exploration and managing costs effectively. This is a field that very few of us understand, and it is obviously impossible to prove the functionality of a device if it's never been used. There must be a first for everything, and I would much rather see our government supporting scientific research that is lesser known, than spending countless dollars on subjects and fields we have made far more progress in. It is important to strengthen our weak areas of study as well as our strengths.

Outrageous comment earlier. Go away? So the USA, which put a Man on the Moon, and developed technology in the process like, oh say, little things like -- THE MICROPROCESSOR that lets people like you sit in your grandma's basement and blog all night...came from NASA Spin-off. People who say NASA is wasteful just don't understand technology development and the impact it has on our economy (Science and Tech jobs), spin offs into the private sector, and keeping our nation's control and leadership in Space. To kill Constellation and manned space program will signal further to the world under Obama that the USA is a nation "in decline." A 2nd rate nation. Up to our eyeballs in debt, a "gimme mentality" when it comes to everything. No, we need to fully fund NASA -- Instead of sending $5 billion to Corrupt ACORN like Obama did in the so-called Stimulus slush fund, maybe take just $3 billion of that over to Constellation, and keep 30,000 high-tech rocket scientists, engineers and technicians employed -- including thousands of Utahns.

Never used? the fact is a prototype constellation Aries 1X was launched using all the components of the real thing and it was a complete success, The fact is all of the major technology used in this rocket has been used for years in the space shuttle. there is no doubt what so ever that the constellation system would work the only thing that is in doubt is if baby Obama will fund something that was concieved during the Bush era. the exploration of space can only be accomplished if we dont change directions every four years at the whim of inexperienced politicians whose only experience is being a community organizer and socialist hack.

"Aries 1X was launched using all the components of the real thing and it was a complete success"

If you are going to lie about something you don't understand, at least you could try to spell it right.

NASA did not develop the microprocessor, the integrated circuit, or any miniature electronics. I'll admit that NASA was one of the early purchasers of that technology, but it is disingenuous to claim NASA invented that, Tang, Teflon, or Kevlar (as is commonly claimed). Spin-off technologies aren't nearly so fantastic as is often claimed.

NASA is indeed a bloated government agency, and Constellation needs to die a quick painless death, not this drawn out monstrosity. Ares 1-X was nothing more than a shuttle SRB that flew independently, and certainly wasn't anything close to the Ares I rocket. That wasn't even a real test, nor was it a complete success. There were many problems even with the Ares I-X launch, and it didn't even reach orbit.

Some of you people first acccuse president Obama of being a "socialist " , you complain about big government , and yap happily about the private sector. Well guess what NASA is big government! And this president is actually pushing for the private sector to escalate research and create jobs! Still not good for you folks. It is time the rest of us took a spin in space, unleash private sectors equals job job jobs! You can't have it both ways. Time to say goodbye to the Ares program!

And why can't you have it both ways? It works for the airline industry, the car industry, the information security industry, etc. It makes perfect sense to have both a commercial carrier for LEO and a specialized vehicle for science and deep space exploration. NASA could ride to station for cheap on a Dragon, and save money for their exo-LEO missions.

It wouldn't make any more sense for SpaceX to go exo-LEO than it would for TWA to fly into hurricanes. If they contracted for such a vehicle, it would be no different from the program of record - you'd just be giving it to a different company 20 years down the road, and we won't be going more than 400 miles until 2040.

I work on constellation, and I've been rooting for SpaceX the whole way. I want to catch a $10,000 ticket to space one day too, but NASA still needs a vehicle for exploration.

WE ARE GOING. PERIOD. ~EARTH-MOON-MARS~