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AT: Constellation Design Was Flawed



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AT: Constellation Design Was Flawed



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[____] The Constellation program was behind schedule because it never received adequate funding, forcing directors to make damaging cuts.
Space Travel Online, 9/28/2009, “Funding Shortfalls Have Hurt NASA’s Constellation Program,” http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Funding_Shortfalls_Have_Hurt_NASA_Constellation_Program_999.html
"Following on the heels of the Science and Technology Committee's September 15, 2009 hearing on the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee's Summary Report, during which it became crystal clear that NASA hasn't been given adequate resources to implement the Constellation Program, it should come as no surprise that funding is at the center of NASA's inability to complete the work necessary to build confidence in the cost and schedule estimates the agency develops for Constellation" Gordon said. At the September 15th hearing the chair of the review committee, Mr. Norman Augustine, provided the committee's assessment of the Constellation program, stating that: "We did review the program, its management. We believe it to be soundly managed...We believe that the existing program, given adequate funds, is executable and would carry out its objectives." "Constellation has been underway for four years, and we have invested almost $8 billion in it to date. I am heartened that the review committee found the program to be sound and one that can be successfully implemented if given adequate resources in a timely manner. GAO's report provides a sobering indication of the negative impact that funding shortfalls can have on complex and technically difficult space flight programs like Constellation, no matter how dedicated and skillful the program's workforce is," added Gordon.

AT: Constellation Design Was Flawed


[____]
[____] The cancellation of Constellation was a political decision, not based on program performance.
Scott J. Horowitz, former NASA Associate Administrator of Exploration Systems Missile Directorate, 5/8/2011, “A Trajectory to Nowhere,” http://www.americaspace.org/?p=7621
Myth 1: The current debate is about technical and programmatic issues with NASA’s Constellation Program. The current debate has nothing to do with technical/programmatic issues, it is completely politically motivated and being driven by a few people in the current administration (Lori Garver, NASA Deputy Administrator, Jim Kohlenberger, Office of Science and Technology Policy Chief of Staff, and Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the Office of Management and Budget). Their objective is to cancel the “Bush” program and punish the states (Alabama, Texas) that “didn’t vote for us anyway”.
[____]
[____] The study that found Constellation to be inefficient was done incorrectly.
Scott J. Horowitz, former NASA Associate Administrator of Exploration Systems Missile Directorate, 5/8/2011, “A Trajectory to Nowhere,” http://www.americaspace.org/?p=7621
Myth 2: The Constellation Program is on an “unsustainable trajectory”.
This of course is the administration’s entire platform (excuse) for wanting to cancel the Constellation Program. They used a simple 3 step process to create this catch-phrase.

•Immediately reduce the Constellation Budget by 20% in the FY 2010 budget when the new administration took office.

•Gather a commission to study the program populated with as few people that know anything about real development programs as possible and have agendas aligned with the desired outcome.

•Produce a report with “options”, but insufficient data to support recommendations and pick the ones that cancel the current program even though there is no data supporting any “sustainable” alternatives.

So what the Augustine Commission found out was that the Constellation Program was underfunded (didn’t need a commission to tell us that), but more importantly, it was well managed and capable of dealing with technical issues expected in a program of this magnitude. In fact Norm Augustine testified before Congress that:



We did review the program, its management. We believe it to be soundly managed… We saw no problems that appear to be unsolvable given the proper engineering talent, the attention, and the funds to solve them.”

Constellation Effective / AT: Smaller Rockets Solve



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[____] Constellation’s ARES rocket opens up new ways of studying space that were previously impossible.
Tariq Malik, Senior Editor for SPACE.com, 1/21/2009, “New Moon Rocket Could Launch Giant Space Telescopes,” from http://www.space.com/6337-moon-rocket-launch-giant-space-telescopes.html
NASA’s plans for the mammoth Ares V rocket could do more than just launch new lunar landers and cargo to the moon. It could also haul massive telescopes that dwarf the Hubble Space Telescope or fling deep space probes on faster missions to the outer planets. Slated to make its first test flight in 2018, the Ares V rocket is designed to stand about 381 feet (116 meters) tall and be able to launch payloads weighing almost 180 metric tons into low-Earth orbit. ‘When it’s built, it’ll be the biggest rocket that’s ever been built,’ said Kathy Laurini, project manager for NASA’s Altair lunar lander designed to ride an Ares V to the moon by 2020, has said. ‘It’s quite big.’ But while the Ares V is designed under NASA’s Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon, the rocket behemoth presents a boon for astronomers and other scientists dreaming of bigger, better space-based observatories. ‘The science community is taking a hard look at Ares V and its capability,’ Laurini told SPACE.com. ‘It helps them enable a whole other class of mission.’



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