Two Congressional Hearings Point To A Fading NASA
Two Congressional hearings were held simultaneously on Wednesday to discuss NASA’s future.
One thing sticks out of these two hearings: both focused on important topics that NASA was required, by law, to provde reports to Congress about. Both reports were delivered many months after their due date. The reports provide no meaningulful information as to what NASA plans to do, why it wants to do these things, how it plans to do them, what it will actually cost, and who will pay to make all of this happen. These questions were, of course, what Congress wanted NASA’s reports to answer in the first place.
This pattern from NASA HEOMD of foot dragging and vague responses to simple questions from Congress has typified the way that NASA has explaining its human exploration plans for the past ten years. These responses are filled with Powerpoint cartoons but are otherwise lacking in real substance. And when the real programs go awry its hard to see why or understand what the consequences are – other than the need for more money and time.
A new Administrator now has to look at his agency’s lackluster performance and, as prompted by Sen. Cruz, answer the question as to why it takes NASA longer to do things it once did much faster – and whether this is the way that the agency is going to comply with the current Administration’s intent that NASA regain and/or maintain its leadership in space. Quite honestly it seems to be exactly the opposite of what is required.
