On July 23rd, 2014, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that NASA didn't have enough money to complete the Space Launch System (SLS) in time for the 2017 first launch of the rocket according to Marcia S. Smith's of SpacePolicyOnline.com article entitled "GAO Warns NASA $400 Million Short to Finish SLS by 2017" (click here to see article). What the hell?The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 "required immediate development" of the SLS. Where does it say in the Constitution that Congress can require development of anything? Such a demand would lie in the executive branch of government, not the legislation. Well, legally I'm sure I am wrong here, but logically I am right. NASA, DARPA, and other government research agencies ought to be directed by the executive branch only and not by the legislative. The reason is obvious, research drives military power and economic health of the nation. Yes, it's national security. See, I think economic health should be a part of national security and not just national secrets. Yet, we have to live with these short sited authorization acts. Ideally, any legislation authorizing money to a very large project ought to grantee funding for the projected life of the porject. But the authorization act of 2010 only gave money to 2013. What the hell!
I knew this was coming, and when it came I still felt mad and betrayed. This is exactly why we are not further in our space program as we expected to be. This questionable way of financing large NASA projects puts into question Congress' concern for the nation's welfare. This system is broken. It needs to be redone, rethought over. I think its time for the US people to start thinking of better ways to proceed in space. The space research has expanded to a point where there is more space projects than there is available money. There are commercial alternatives now to launching spacecraft. There are new spacecraft designs with cost in mind. Tell Congress to grow a brain and get smarter about space. It's no longer about jobs in a particular state. It's about the economy as a whole benefiting from research that is waiting to be done.
