Augustine Review Panel Says NASA’s Resources Aren’t Sufficient to Meet Goals in Human Spaceflight
By Barton Reppert

The U.S. human spaceflight program currently appears to be on an “unsustainable trajectory,” according to a report by a 10-member expert panel chaired by Norman R. Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp.

“It is perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources,” says the summary report of the Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee. “Space operations are among the most complex and unforgiving pursuits ever undertaken by humans. It really is rocket science. Space operations become all the more difficult when means do not match aspirations. Such is the case today.”

At the same time, the report says, the outlook for strengthening America’s human spaceflight capabilities can be improved by undertaking vigorous efforts involving redoubled international cooperation with other space-faring countries, as well as promoting expanded opportunities for the commercial space industry.

Jay Greenberg, chairman of IEEE-USA’s Committee on Transportation and Aerospace Policy (CTAP), observed that the Augustine panel’s report “concludes that there is no plan compatible with budget projections that ‘permits human exploration to continue in any meaningful way.’ Although this report is critical of NASA’s approach to sustaining U.S. human spaceflight, IEEE-USA believes that it is important for Congress to view the forthcoming full report carefully, as it relates to maintaining budget projections supporting NASA’s overall space program.”

Doug Taggart, vice chairman of CTAP, commented that “IEEE-USA’s initial reaction to the Augustine Report is that in reviewing the key questions that should be addressed for charting the future of the U.S. human spaceflight program, Congress should not lose sight of the importance that the overall U.S. space program plays in fostering inspiration in this nation’s next generation of scientists and engineers. In that regard, it is very important to maintain a visionary eye to funding NASA’s overall space program -- with research and development initiatives and other investments in technology that benefit society, drive technical innovation, while furthering our national expertise in space exploration and overall scientific knowledge.”

The Augustine panel’s report said that “there is now a strong consensus in the United States that the next step in human spaceflight is to travel beyond low-Earth orbit. This should carry important benefits to society: driving technological innovation; developing commercial industries and important national capabilities; and contributing to our expertise in further exploration.”

Also, it said the review committee “concluded that the ultimate goal of human exploration is to chart a path for human expansion into the solar system. This is an ambitious goal, but one worthy of U.S. leadership in concert with a broad range of international partners.”

In view of reports that NASA’s exploration program was encountering serious technical and budgetary problems, President Barack Obama established the Augustine committee and gave it 90 days to review the situation. However, at this point it remains unclear whether the Administration wants to significantly increase budget outlays for space.

The space shuttle is scheduled to be retired 2010, after which there will be a gap of up to seven years during which American astronauts will have to rely on Russian spacecraft.

NASA’s Constellation program calls for developing two new rockets, a new crew capsule and the return of astronauts to the moon by 2020. However, the Augustine report says that without additional funding, a heavy-lift rocket to carry large payloads to the moon likely will not be ready until the late 2020s, and also that there may be insufficient funds to develop the lunar lander and lunar surface systems until well into the 2030s.

On Capitol Hill, the Augustine panel’s findings were the focus of a 15 September hearing by the House Science and Technology Committee.

The committee’s chair, Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., told the session: “I have made no secret in recent years of my belief that the resources given to NASA haven’t kept pace with the important tasks that we have asked NASA to undertake. That has caused significant stresses in recent years, and we can’t continue down that path. We either have to give NASA the resources that it needs or stop pretending that it can do all we’ve put on its plate. That’s especially true for NASA’s exploration program, and it’s true for the rest of its important missions, too.”

Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, ranking Republican on the Science and Technology Committee, said: “It is my opinion that NASA has the greatest chance of success if given a clearly defined destination and the clearly defined design requirements that go with it. Our greatest concern has long been the inadequate level of funding being requested, and the gap between the retirement of the space shuttle and development of the follow-on Constellation system.”

Hall added: “I am not a fan of increased spending, but I have always thought our human spaceflight program gives the United States so much to be proud of, and carries within it the promise of significant breakthroughs in healthcare, defense and alternative energy sources.”

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, said the Augustine review panel has “given us a sobering reminder that our position as the world’s leading space-faring nation is not a given – we continually need to re-earn that pre-eminent position through our actions, and we can’t just rest on past laurels. The rest of the world has discovered space too, and we are seeing the emergence of impressive capabilities in other countries we need to take seriously.”

Also serving as members of the Augustine review committee were:

• Dr. Wanda M. Austin, president and CEO, The Aerospace Corp

• Bohdan I. Bejmuk, chair, NASA Constellation Standing Review Board

• Dr. Leroy Chiao, former astronaut, former International Space Station commander and engineering consultant

• Dr. Christopher F. Chyba, professor of astrophysics sciences and international affairs, Princeton University

• Dr. Edward F. Crawley, Ford Professor of Engineering, MIT

• Jeffrey K. Greason, co-founder and CEO, XCOR Aerospace

• Dr. Charles F. Kennel, director and professor emeritus, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego

• Gen. Lester Lyles, USAF (retired)

• Dr. Sally Ride, president and CEO, Imaginary Lines