Space Access Update is Space Access Society's semi-weekly publication. Space Access Society's goal is to promote affordable access to space for all, period. We believe in concentrating our limited resources at whatever point looks like yielding maximum progress toward this goal.
For the moment, our main focus is on supporting BMDO's "SSRT" (Single Stage Rocket Technology) program, DC-X and its planned-but-not-yet-funded followon, SX-2. Space Access Update is thus for the moment largely about the technology and politics of DC-X and SX-2.
We anticipate a change of focus in a couple of months, if all goes well. Once SX-2 startup funding is (with your help!) assured, we plan to begin working on establishment of a healthy second X-rocket development track at NASA, and on getting development of suitable engines started for the fully reusable orbital ships that should come after SX-2 and NASA's X-rocket.
With luck and hard work, we should see one or more fully reusable SSTO testbeds flying to orbit toward the end of this decade, with production prototypes entering test a couple of years after that. Join us and help us make this happen.
Henry Vanderbilt, Editor, Space Access Update
(For more info on Space Access Society, write us at 4855 E Warner Rd #24-150, Phoenix AZ 85044, or email hvanderbilt@bix.com)
[Editors note -- For those of you seeing this for the first time who need a bit more context, look for the subsequent post titled "DC-X Background". -HV]
The long version of our trip report from the DC-X Invitational will have to wait a bit longer; we're just finishing recovering from the King Kong Cold we caught on the road, and we also had to burn some time last week responding to skullduggery in the Senate cloakroom. SAS members, see your private addendum; the rest of you will have to wait a bit for the inside scoop. (Hey, we have to give the paying members some extra consideration, after all.)
Meanwhile, some odds and ends of fact we've gleaned:
In other news, there is a behind-the-scenes debate brewing among SX-2 supporters as to how ambitious the program should be. All parties agree that initially SX-2 should use the same RL-10-a5 engines as DC-X to avoid delays and development risk. The less conservative faction (SAS included) wants the SX-2 vehicle(s) designed with oversize tanks and structures so that once more powerful engines are available, at least one SX-2 can be upgraded to near- orbital capability. Possibly, fingers crossed, if everything goes right, no payload, no promises, upgraded to the point where it can actually make a minimal orbit and return in one piece.
The more conservative types are sensibly cautious about promising too much on a limited budget, and have a very good point in that it would be far too easy for the perception to arise that anything short of orbit is failure. Such a perception was one of the factors that turned NASP into an endless study program, after all.
Finally, SAS has a fair collection of DC-X related video and will be offering compendium tapes for sale soon in VHS only. We already have tape of the first flight and of an extended BMDO background piece on SSRT, and we expect to have footage from the second flight plus video of DC-X talks given recently at the Worldcon in the next day or two. Email hvanderbilt@bix.com or write us at SAS, 4855 E Warner Rd #24-150, Phoenix AZ 85044 for more info. Prices will be nominal; SAS members will get a discount because they're already paying for part of our overhead.
The Congressional funding process has two phases, "Authorization", then "Appropriation". Authorization is roughly equivalent to drawing up a shopping list for the coming year, while Appropriation can be looked at as going through the shopping list deciding how much of each item to actually buy. Authorized budget items are often reduced or deleted in the Appropriations process, but seldom increased, and new items are rarely added.
The Congress debates and passes "Authorizations" and "Appropriations" bills for each major area of government, about a dozen pairs of bills in all. The ones we're concerned with are the Defense Department (DOD) Authorizations and Appropriations bills. DOD happened to be where the necessary money and management style was when DC-X was getting started up.
Both the House of Representatives with 435 members elected in population based districts, and the Senate with 100 members elected two per state, draw up and pass their own versions of each "Authorizations" and "Appropriations" bill.
Authorizations bills generally originate in the appropriate specialized committees within the House and Senate, in this case the House and Senate Armed Services Committees (HASC and SASC). Appropriations Bills generally originate in specialized subcommittees of the powerful House and Senate Appropriations Committees (HAC and SAC), in this case the HAC and SAC Defense Subcommittees.
Each bill will generally go from the subcommittee that drafts it, to the full committee that "marks it up" (modifies it), then to the full House or Senate that will amend it and approve it in "floor votes", votes of all members.
At this point, there will be two separate versions of the bill, House and Senate. There are a number of ways to come up with a common version for final passage into law, but the method that concerns us is the "Conference Committee", a committee with members from both House and Senate whose job is to negotiate a compromise version. The Conference version is then near- automatically approved by both House and Senate, thus becoming law.
A Conference Committee is usually made up of selected members from the House and Senate committees that wrote the bills in the first place. Generally the committee and subcommittee heads plus their minority party counterparts (the "Ranking Republican Members" or RRM's on each committee and subcommittee) are automatically included. The House and Senate don't necessarily send equal numbers, since Conference Committee approval requires a majority among the House members plus a majority among the Senate members - an overall majority of Conference Committee members is not enough.
The House Defense Authorization includes $79.88 million for SSRT next year, $4.88 million for DC-X flight testing and $75 million for startup of the SX-2 followon to DC-X. This is what we're working to get in the final budget.
The Senate Defense Authorization includes a $30 million line item, to be divided among SSRT, NASP, and Spacelifter as DOD decides. This is not great, but better than nothing. Senator Domenici's amendment matching House levels for SSRT was defeated 66 to 33 last Tuesday. There seems to have been some dirty pool involved -- details in the SAS members' private followup.
The Senate Defense Authorization has been passed, while the House version still awaits a final floor vote last we heard. As soon as the House version is passed (likely in the next day or two), the Conference process will start, with Conference members announced (they're likely already selected) and the Defense Authorizations Conference getting underway. This conference is VITAL to us! We must get them to adopt something as close to the favorable House SSRT language as possible.
Neither the House nor the Senate Defense Appropriations bill has "reached the floor" (gone to the full House or Senate for amendment and debate) yet.
The House Appropriations Committee's Defense Subcommittee (HAC Defense, John Murtha chairman) has appropriated $40 million for SSRT, roughly half what was authorized. Not great, but not bad either, given that HAC Defense trimmed an additional $6 billion from the overall DOD Appropriation at the last minute. Your calls and letters probably helped prevent SSRT getting zeroed out here.
The Senate Appropriations Committee's Defense Subcommittee (SAC Defense, Daniel Inouye chairman) will probably mark up in the next few days. This is the second area where we have to push for favorable treatment of SSRT, to improve our position in the eventual Defense Appropriations conference.
We have a tentative list of House-Senate Defense Authorization conferees (SASC & HASC committee/subcommittee heads and RRM's) attached. Call, write, or fax:
Ask them to support the House Defense Authorization language on BMDO's Single Stage Rocket Technology (SSRT). On the Senate side, pay particular attention to giving at least one good reason to support SSRT to the Senators who voted against the Domenici SSRT Amendment. Thank the Senators (marked with a *) who voted for that amendment, and ask the ones who didn't (politely) why not. On the House side, thank Representatives Dellums and Schroeder for their past support and ask them to continue it.
We also recommend calls, letters, and faxes to Senator Inouye, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's Defense Subcommittee (SAC Defense) and to any SAC Defense members from your state, asking them to appropriate funds for Single Stage Rocket Technology (SSRT) at the House Authorization level of $79.88 million. Here too, thank the Senators who voted for Domenici's SSRT amendment, and inquire politely of the others why they opposed SSRT, while giving them at least one good reason why they should support it.
That's all for this week. Thanks for all the good work so far. We're close to winning what we need for the coming year. Keep at it.
[Note from the editor: If you've never contacted your elected representatives in Washington before, now is a good time to start. It's painless, it can actually be pretty effective, and if you don't believe developing the means of affordable space access is a good cause, chances are you wouldn't be reading this, eh? For some tips on making effective contact, see the Politics section of the subsequent "DC-X Background" posting. -HV]
-- Likely Conferees from the Senate Armed Services Committee --
("Senator XYZ", office#, "Washington DC 20510" will get mail to them.)
(* = voted for the Domenici Amendment favoring full funding for SSRT.)
Name office# phone fax (AC 202)
Sam Nunn (D-GA) SASC Chair SD-303 224-3521 224-0072
James Exon (D-NE) "Nuke" Chair SH-528 224-4224 224-5213
John McCain (R-AZ) SR-111 224-2235 224-8938
*Richard C. Shelby (D-AL) SH-509 224-5744 224-3416
William S. Cohen (R-ME) SH-322 224-2523 224-2693
Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) SR-315 224-4543 224-2417
Carl Levin (D-MI) SR-459 224-6221 224-1388
Dan Coats (R-IN) SR-404 224-5623 224-1966
*Trent Lott (R-MS) SR-487 224-6253 224-2262
*Bob Smith (R-NH) SD-332 224-2841 224-1353
*Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) SH-110 224-5521 224-1810
*John Glenn (D-OH) SH-503 224-3353 224-7983
Strom Thurmond (R-SC) SR-217 224-5972 224-1300
John Warner (R-VA) SR-225 224-2023 224-6295
-- Likely Conferees from the House Armed Services Committee --
(all phone #'s in 202 area code, all addresses are Washington DC 20515,
in either the Cannon, Longworth, or Rayburn House Office Buildings.
Rep. Dellums' address, for instance, would be written as:
Representative Dellums
2136 Rayburn HOB
Washington DC 20515 )
phone fax address
Ron Dellums, D 9 CA HASC Chair 225-2661 225-9817 2136 RHOB
Floyd Spence, R 2 SC HASC RRM 225-2452 225-2455 2405 RHOB
Patricia Schroeder, D 1 CO 225-4431 225-5842 2208 RHOB
Earl Hutto, D 1 FL 225-4136 225-5785 2435 RHOB
Dave McCurdy, D 4 OK 225-6165 225-9746 2344 RHOB
Bob Stump, R 3 AZ 225-4576 225-6328 211 CHOB
Duncan Hunter, R 52 CA 225-5672 225-0235 133 CHOB
John R Kasich, R 12 OH 225-5355 ? 1131 LHOB
James V Hansen, R 1 UT 225-0453 225-5857 2466 RHOB
Ike Skelton, D MO 225-2876 225-2695 ?
Jon Kyl, R AZ 225-3361 225-1143 ?
Norman Sisiky, D VA 225-6365 226-1170 ?
-- Senate Appropriations Committee, Defense Subcommittee List --
("Senator XYZ", office#, "Washington DC 20510" will get mail to them.)
(* = voted for the Domenici Amendment favoring full funding for SSRT.)
(note - Phil Gramm of Texas did not vote either way on the amendment.)
SENATOR STATE FAX PHONE Office#
-----------------------------------------------------------
*Bond, Christopher R MO 224-7491 224-5721 SR293
Bumpers, Dale D AR 224-6435 224-4843 SD229
Byrd, Robert D WV 224-4025 224-3954 SH311
*Cochran, Thad R MS 224-9450 224-5054 SR326
*D'Amato, Alfonse R NY 224-5871 224-6542 SH520
DeConcini, Dennis D AZ 224-2302 224-4521 SH328
*Domenici, Pete R NM 224-7371 224-6621 SD434
Gramm, Phil R TX 228-2856 224-2934 SR370
Harkin, Tom D IA 224-9369 224-3254 SH351
Hollings, Ernest D SC 224-3573 224-6121 SR125
Inouye, Daniel D HI 224-6747 224-3934 SH722
*Johnston, J.Bennett D LA 224-2952 224-5824 SH136
Lautenberg, Frank D NJ 224-9707 224-4744 SH506
Leahy, Patrick D VT 224-3595 224-4242 SR433
Nickles, Don R OK 224-6008 224-5754 SH713
Sasser, Jim D TN 224-8062 224-3344 SR363
Specter, Arlen R PA 224-1893 224-4254 SH303
*Stevens, Ted R AK 224-2354 224-3004 SH522
Henry Vanderbilt "Reach low orbit and you're halfway to anywhere
Executive Director, in the Solar System."
Space Access Society - Robert A. Heinlein
hvanderbilt@bix.com "You can't get there from here."
602 431-9283 voice/fax - Anonymous
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