HUNTSVILLE, AL—
It's not Constellation, but Congressional Space Adviser Mark McDaniel says the Senate committee's plan for NASA is good news for Huntsville."The government is going to keep primary control of building rockets to go into low earth orbit and beyond," he said.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the bill Thursday, which would send NASA in a new direction.
If passed through the House and Senate and signed by President Obama, the bill would do a few key things.
Number one - it would throw money toward scientists to develop a new launch rocket.
"It puts the government back in the rocket business. The billions of dollars that were going to go right into the commercialization aspect is not going to go there now," said McDaniel.
Number two - the bill would add one more space shuttle flight to NASA's schedule, and the space shuttle's retirement would be delayed.
And, number three - it would use the Constellation and space shuttle research to develop new technology.
McDaniel says the legislation that was approved Thursday is a first step, but it's a significant one for NASA's future and the future of space workers in Huntsville.
"This gives them some hope. It's not done yet, but it sure is good news because you have Congress saying this is what we're going to do, and you have the White House saying 'Okay; if this is what you want, we'll go along with it,'" McDaniel said.
McDaniel says Democrats backing and selling the plan is what convinced President Obama to go along with it.
Although the President's proposal for NASA was different from this bill, McDaniel says it doesn't do away with everything he had proposed.
McDaniel says this bill needs to pass through quickly, and he thinks it might because the President and Congress understand how important it is to not lose NASA workers.
But McDaniel promises before all is said and done, there will be strong opposition to the bill from companies interested in commercial space flight.
