Space Opinions Survey

[bananas]

19. Five years after Augustine: How does the panel feel about NASA’s Space Launch System?

http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2014/06/five-years-after-augustine-how-does-the-panel-feel-about-nasas-space-launch-system/

Five years after Augustine: How does the panel feel about NASA’s Space Launch System?
Posted on June 17, 2014 | By Eric Berger

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Augustine lamented the fact that NASA is still being asked to take on ambitious goals: build a big expensive rocket, space capsule and send humans to Mars in the 2030s, without having nearly enough resources to accomplish this.

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The aftermath of the Augustine commission, during which Congress ordered NASA to build the SLS, was unfortunate, Chiao said.

“That was a big disappointment to most of us, probably all of us, on the committee. They did exactly what we asked them not to do, which was don’t partially fund it, and say you want to do everything.”

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Greason, in an interview, said NASA simply can’t afford to both build the SLS and use it to fly meaningful missions.

“The one thing that was clear that could not be done was to carry forward this approach with the existing budget, and that’s exactly what they’re doing,” he said.

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