Comments on: NASA pushes ahead with contracting change for CCDev

By: Elmar_M

Elmar_M — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 02:21:03 +0000

In regards to politicians, I have learned that the phrase “never assume stupidity when malevolence might apply” is quite fitting.
The prety obvious purpose of this is purely malevolent. The committee correctly realized that if the commercials manage to do station access (and in case of SpaceX later also BEO exploration) for NASA at a low cost, their SLS- abomonation will look very bad in the public eye.
Therefore they now seek to artificially introduce overhead and additional beaurocracy. They expect this to slow down the development of commercial crew sufficiently.

By: red

red — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:03:11 +0000

It sounds like there needs to be a CCDEV 2, part B to at least delay the quagmire.

By: Bill Hensley

Bill Hensley — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:30:21 +0000

The Senate committee’s comments are pure Old School. The implication is that only NASA can design and build a safe system for crew transportation. Therefore NASA must exercise direct, detailed oversight of the development. I know there are many people in NASA that still think that way, too, but it seems a little too convenient for Hutchison, Shelby, et. al. This will certainly make CCDev slower and more expensive, rendering it less likely to embarrass their beloved SLS jobs program.