Transcript of REVIEW OF U.S. HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT PLANS COMMITTEE Public Meeting Huntsville July 29, 2009 8:00 A.M. Committee Members Norman Augustine, Chairman, former CEO of Lockheed Martin, former Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Future of the United States Space Program Phil McAlister, Executive Director, Designated Federal Official (DFO) Members – Listed Alphabetically Wanda M. Austin, Ph.D. Bohdan Bejmuk, Chairman, NASA Constellation Program Standing Review Board Leroy Chiao, Ph.D. Christopher Chyba, Ph. D, National Academy of Sciences Committee Steve Cook, Project Manager, NASA Marshal Space Flight Center, Project Ares Edward F. Crawley, Ph.D. Steve Creech, Ares V Integration Manager Daniel J. Davis, Upper Stage Manager, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Project Ares Stephan Davis, Deputy Manager Ares I-X – Mission Management Office Bret Drake, NASA Lunar and Mars Integration Joe Fragola, Vice President, Valador Inc. Jeffrey Greason, Co-Founder of XCOR Aerospace Jeffrey Hanley, Program Manager, NASA Constellation Program Dr. John Hutt, Ares I Vehicle Integration - Chief Engineer Charles Kennel, Former Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography Mike Kynard, Upper Stage Engine Manager, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Project Ares Robert Lightfoot, Deputy Director, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center General (ret) Lester L. Lyles, National Academies Committee on the Rationale and Goals of the U.S. Civil Space Program, Chairman Alex Priskos, First Stage Manager, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Project Ares Gary Pulliam, Vice President of Civil and Commercial Operations, The Aerospace Corporation Sally K. Ride, Ph.D., Former Astronaut 1 Public Commentary Section – Speakers Listed Alphabetically Tommy Battle – Huntsville City Mayor Dr. Barbara Cohen – Planetary Scientist Ronda Cox – High School Math Teacher Shar Hendrick – Vice Chairman Tennessee Valley NASA Advocacy Committee Homer Hickam – NASA Engineer (ret.) & Author Steve McKamy – NASA Contractor Michael Milling - Masten Space Systems Ray Moses – Retired Space Engineer Tim Pickens – Orion Propulsion – President David Ward – Space Camp Counselor Andy Welton – University of Tennessee – Physics Major Dave Williams – University of Alabama, Huntsville – President Dennis Wingo – NASA, DoD, DARPA & Author 2 INDEX Morning Session: Introduction & Opening Remarks: Phil McAlister.......................................................................5 Norman Augustine...............................................................5 Marshall Space Flight Center Perspective: Robert Lightfoot....................................................................7 Questions & Answers..........................................................16 LEO Access Subgroup: Bohdan Bejmuk...................................................................17 Gary Pulliam........................................................................20 Bohdan Bejmuk.......................................................................31 Questions & Answers..........................................................32 General Les Lyles..................................................33 Wanda Austin.........................................................34 Sally Ride. .............................................................35 Jeffrey Greason......................................................37 Charles Kennel.......................................................38 Christopher Chyba..................................................38 Edward Crawley......................................................41 Constellation Project: Jeffrey Hanley...................................................................42 Steve Cook ..........................................................................43 Joe Fragola ..........................................................................49 Alex Priskos .........................................................................52 Daniel Davis.........................................................................55 Mike Kynard .........................................................................58 Questions & Answers..........................................................60 Leroy Chiao ...............................................................60 Jeffrey Greason.........................................................63 Norman Augustine ....................................................64 General Les Lyles .....................................................65 Bohdan Bejmuk .........................................................67 Congressional Perspective: Senator Shelby's Comments ..............................................68 Senator Jeff Sessions' Letter..............................................69 Representative Griffith's Comments ..................................70 Representative Aderholt's Comments ...............................71 Congressman Davis' Letter ................................................71 Afternoon Session: Constellation Projects (Part II): Stephan Davis (Introduction) ..............................................72 John Hutt..............................................................................73 Stephan Davis .....................................................................77 Steve Creech .......................................................................78 Stephan Davis (Wrap-up) ...................................................81 Questions & Answers..........................................................82 3 Human Exploration of Mars: Bret Drake ............................................................................82 Questions & Answers..........................................................86 Participant..................................................................86 Chris Chyba ...............................................................87 Norman Augustine ....................................................88 Bohdan Bejmuk .........................................................91 Charles Kennel..........................................................91 Integration Subgroup: General Les Lyles ...............................................................94 Questions & Answers........................................................103 Jeffrey Greason.......................................................103 Chris Chyba .............................................................105 Charles Kennel........................................................105 Bohdan Bejmuk .......................................................106 Norman Augustine ..................................................107 Leroy Chiao .............................................................109 Wanda Austin ..........................................................111 Public Comment Period: Tommy Battles...................................................................113 Shar Hendrick ....................................................................113 Dennis Wingo ....................................................................114 Barbara Cohen ..................................................................115 Homer Hickam ...................................................................116 Steve McKamy...................................................................116 Michael Milling ...................................................................117 Dave Williams ....................................................................117 Tim Pickens .......................................................................118 Rhonda Cox.......................................................................119 Ray Moses .........................................................................120 David Ward ........................................................................120 Andy Welton.......................................................................121 Yoshi Takahashi ................................................................121 Closing - Norman Augustine..............................................................123 4 Presentation Phil McAlister, Executive Director, Designated Federal Official (DFO) Good morning everybody and welcome to the third public meeting of the review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee. I am Phil McAlister, I am the Executive Director of the committee and we are happy to be in Huntsville this morning. I say that just to remind us that we are in Huntsville because we’ve got several meetings in several cities and sometimes we lose track. This is a public meeting. It is governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act which means that among other things that the discussion, the presentations, and the comments today are all on the record. There will be a public comment period at the end of the day. We ask that people come up to the mics at that period. It is at the end of the day. We ask that you don’t ask questions for the committee. There is a Q&A portion of the website for that. We would like to get as many comments as possible from the public so we are going to ask that everybody keep their comments to about a two minute period. And for members of the media, there will be a half-hour session at the end of the day today with Norman Augustine so your questions can be asked then. So again let’s try to keep the public comment period to public comments. In addition, if we don’t get to everybody and we probably will. We have at every meeting so far, but if we don’t get to everybody