President’s Science Advisor Addresses Major Space Policy Issues

The first topic was NASA’s Space Launch Initiative (i.e. NASA’s Second Generation RLV Program) that was announced in coordination with NASA’s FY 2001 Budget. The other topic was the release (at the conference) of “The Future Management and Use of the U.S. Space Launch Bases and Ranges”, a report of the Interagency Working Group co-chaired by the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Security Council.

Lane spoke of a growing awareness at the White House that a thorough look needed to be taken at the future of America’s means of gaining access to space for all types of payloads. He cited NASA’s recently announced “Space Launch Initiative” as the means whereby these issues and concerns would be addressed.

The goal of this plan is to set NASA on a path whereby the development of NASA’s Second Generation Launch System could begin in 2005 with operational status to be achieved by 2010. In so doing, Lane expressed the intent that there would be an increasing use of commercial means to launch humans and satellites into space, while decreasing the technical risk at the same time.

With regard to the current Space Shuttle launch system, Lane noted that NASA had already decreased launch costs by one-third while doubling the safety of the vehicle. He said that Shuttle upgrades now underway and those yet to be begun would all be completed by 2005.

Lane then turned to the report “The Future Management and Use of the U.S. Space Launch Bases and Ranges. According to Lane the Initiative was undertaken at the joint request of himself and National Security Advisor Sandy Berger. Input was received from a number of sources including other agencies such as NASA, FAA, DoD, and the commercial sector.

According to Lane, the near term recommendations focused on state and local management of activities at government launch facilities with an emphasis upon facilitating enhanced flexibility in their management and the use of non-government funding. The overall goal being the strengthening and expansion of government-private partnerships in the management of commercial space launch activities

The report does not support the near term transfer of ownership of government facilities to local governments or the private sector. However, according to Lane, should the launch market develop sufficiently that a case could be made for viable commercial support of these facilities, the government’s role should be seriously reconsidered.

Specifically, the report recommends a National Strategy be developed. Among the specific recommendations made by the report:

• Propose alternative management structures to allow commercial and government users of the U.S. space launch bases and ranges adequate opportunity to communicate their requirements so they can be actively considered and factored into decisions on improvements and operations with the goals of providing greater user voice and improving operational flexibility.

• Pursue means of achieving improved efficiencies in range operations.

• Encourage, permit, and maximize use of nonfederal funding sources (especially from states and spaceports) for the continued maintenance and modernization of the space launch bases
  and ranges to meet national needs for space transportation.

• Explore options for replacing the “excess capacity” constraint in the current policy and legal framework, while retaining priority access for national security and critical civil sector missions, to allow a more complete partnership to develop between the federal government and the U.S. commercial space sector, including States and spaceports.

• Develop common range safety requirements for government, civil, and commercial launches at federal and nonfederal launch sites and ensure that Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) resources are commensurate with its statutory requirements and safety responsibilities.

• The Air Force and NASA should develop a plan to examine, explore, and proceed with next-generation range technology development and demonstration, with a focused charter to improve safety, increase flexibility and capacity, and lower costs for reusable and expendable aunch vehicles. NASA should designate KSC as a National Center for next-generation Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) range technology development and demonstration.

  
  

References