S. HRG. 111–998 ASSESSING COMMERCIAL SPACE CAPABILITIES HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND SPACE OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION MARCH 18, 2010 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 66–983 PDF WASHINGTON : 2011 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:53 Jun 22, 2011 Jkt 066983 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\GPO\DOCS\66983.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas, Ranking JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada BARBARA BOXER, California JIM DEMINT, South Carolina BILL NELSON, Florida JOHN THUNE, South Dakota MARIA CANTWELL, Washington ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey GEORGE S. LEMIEUX, Florida MARK PRYOR, Arkansas JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri DAVID VITTER, Louisiana AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas TOM UDALL, New Mexico MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska MARK WARNER, Virginia MARK BEGICH, Alaska ELLEN L. DONESKI, Staff Director JAMES REID, Deputy Staff Director BRUCE H. ANDREWS, General Counsel ANN BEGEMAN, Republican Staff Director BRIAN M. HENDRICKS, Republican General Counsel NICK ROSSI, Republican Chief Counsel SUBCOMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND SPACE BILL NELSON, Florida, Chairman DAVID VITTER, Louisiana, Ranking DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada BARBARA BOXER, California JOHN THUNE, South Dakota MARK PRYOR, Arkansas JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia TOM UDALL, New Mexico MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska MARK WARNER, Virginia (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:53 Jun 22, 2011 Jkt 066983 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\66983.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on March 18, 2010 ............................................................................ 1 Statement of Senator Nelson .................................................................................. 1 Statement of Senator Hutchison ............................................................................ 44 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 45 WITNESSES Thomas P. Stafford, Lt. General, USAF (Ret.), Former NASA Astronaut .......... 4 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 8 Bryan O’Connor, Chief, Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, National Aeronautics and Space Administration .............................................................. 12 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 14 Dr. George C. Nield, Associate Administrator, Office of Commercial Space Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration ............................................. 16 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 17 Malcolm L. Peterson, Former NASA Comptroller ................................................ 19 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 21 Michael C. Gass, President and Chief Executive Officer, United Launch Alli- ance, LLC .............................................................................................................. 26 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 29 Frank L. Culbertson, Jr., (Captain, USN, Ret.), Senior Vice President and Deputy General Manager, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Advanced Pro- grams Group ......................................................................................................... 30 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 34 Gwynne Shotwell, President, SpaceX .................................................................... 36 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 38 APPENDIX Hon. John D. Rockefeller IV, U.S. Senator from West Virginia, prepared statement .............................................................................................................. 59 Hon. David Vitter, U.S. Senator from Louisiana, prepared statement ............... 59 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:53 Jun 22, 2011 Jkt 066983 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\66983.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:53 Jun 22, 2011 Jkt 066983 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\66983.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE ASSESSING COMMERCIAL SPACE CAPABILITIES THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND SPACE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:48 p.m. in room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Bill Nelson, Chair- man of the Subcommittee, presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BILL NELSON, U.S. SENATOR FROM FLORIDA Senator NELSON. Good afternoon. The hearing will come to order. It should be quite obvious to us by now that the NASA budget, rolled out on February 1, in the President’s request, was, to use some NASA words—in an ‘‘off-nominal fashion.’’ I can tell you for a fact that the perception is that the President has gutted the human spaceflight program. But, that, in fact, is a perception, not a fact. I know the President, and I know him to be a true believer when it comes to this Nation’s spaceflight program, especially the manned program, and that is the reason the President has, in part, decided that he is coming to the Kennedy Space Center on April 15. And we will hear from the Commander in Chief himself when he hosts that meeting to discuss his new plan for NASA and for the future of human spaceflight. I think the Administration will focus on the goals, the strategies, timelines of their plan, and I think that the President will lay out an underscored commitment to the development of technology to pursue a goal that was articulated by the NASA Administrator here in this hearing room a couple of weeks ago. I think this conference is going to be an important step in re- sponse to the concerns that have been expressed by the American public, as well as by their representatives in Congress. And I ex- pect the President to lay out his vision and what the goals and the timelines are for America’s manned space program. Now, the question is, what are going to be the elements of bring- ing about a major R&D effort for, ultimately, a heavy-lift vehicle to get us out of low-Earth orbit? As the President has laid out— the good news of his budget has been lost in a lot of the misperception—NASA is a little civilian agency and he is recom- mending a $6-billion increase for NASA over 5 years. That’s a fair- ly sizable increase, given these financial times, in which one of the (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:53 Jun 22, 2011 Jkt 066983 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\DOCS\66983.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE 2 main things that the U.S. Government has to do is tackle the budg- et deficit and start driving it down to get us back into balance. The other major piece of good news that has been over- shadowed—and I never cease to be amazed, as I talk to people— that, in what I have just talked about—the perceptions—this news has been completely lost. And that is, in the budgeting, up until now, the International Space Station was going to cease to exist in 2015, which, of course, was absolutely ridiculous, from a budgetary planning standpoint, because we haven’t even got it completed yet. And it’s just about to be completed and equipped so that, with its designation as a National Laboratory, it can start to achieve some of the science, through experimentation in the zero-G environment, that we’ve all hoped for; and therefore, in the President’s budget, he adds extra expenditures to keep the Space Station going until at least 2020. It is my hope that the President will also recognize the angst that is out there in the NASA family, because not only are we in a recession where various parts that have a major part of the em- ployment of the Nation’s Space Program are severely hurt, because of high unemployment figures, which is certainly the case in Flor- ida, but the angst is out there because all of this dedicated team, that is the finest launch team in the world, is facing layoffs. And all of this is coming during a difficult economic time in an economic recession. And this is coming not as a result of these budget deci- sions, but budget decisions and safety decisions that were made years ago. And therefore, because these budget decisions were made over the last half-dozen years, the new rocket is not ready when the Space Shuttle is going to be shut down, and as a result, there is a gap without an American vehicle to launch crews to the International Space Station. And that has caused a great deal of angst, as it should, because, if you’re laid off of your job, it’s not a recession, it’s a depression. Because the