Speaking at a heavily attended breakfast meeting of Women in Aerospace, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver projected confidence that as NASA continues to communicate with Congress about the change proposed in the FY2011 budget request they will see that it is “a good plan.”

“The President took on the status quo with his eyes wide open,” knowing that change always is difficult. He was willing to do that, she said, because of the importance he ascribes to NASA and the need for a “sustainable and affordable” way for the space program to move forward. Noting that the 5-year budget allocates $100 billion for NASA, she said President Obama “feels we can do better” and NASA is important enough to fight the battle. She stressed that the country’s elected leaders are making the decisions, starting with the President, and now Congress will evaluate his proposal.

She outlined the increases that the budget proposes for science, aeronautics, technology development, and education, but focused on the proposed cancellation of the Constellation program. Praising the Constellation workforce, she said that the Obama Administration had inherited a “system that made no sense to continue.” The Augustine Committee’s finding that NASA’s budget needed to increase by $3 billion for a successful human space flight program was not for continuing Constellation. She said keeping Constellation on a reasonable schedule would cost $5 billion more a year and the money just is not there. If Congress insists that Constellation continue, she asked, what will be cancelled in order to make that funding available?

In response to a question about how much it would cost to keep the space shuttle flying, she said that when she arrived at NASA she was told that the time to make such a decision already had passed so they had not looked at how much it would cost.

She emphasized that the commercial crew proposal is for “all our partners” in COTS, CCDEV, and Constellation. The main difference is that NASA will “loosen our grip a bit” through a different procurement mechanism than traditional programs like Constellation.

“This matters,” she said, calling on the aerospace community to “come together and work toward a common ground.”

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UPDATE: NBC correspondent Jay Barbree was on MSNBC earlier today talking about why he feels a Plan B is needed. Click here to view the segment.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Citing an internal NASA email, the Wall Street Journal reports today that NASA is working on “Plan B” in case Congress does not agree to cancel the Constellation program. The newspaper said that it had seen an email from NASA Johnson Space Center Director Michael Coats to other NASA centers and program offices saying that NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden had “agreed to let us set up a ‘Plan B’ Team” to “flesh out” alternatives. The newspaper asserted that “The move to draft a compromise highlights behind-the-scenes maneuvering by NASA officials to save big chunks of existing programs now in jeopardy,” but quoted an unnamed NASA spokesman as saying that Gen. Bolden and NASA “are fully committed to the President’s budget.”

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, has introduced legislation to “close the gap in U.S. spaceflight.” A press release on the committee’s website explains that the bill would continue space shuttle launches as work on a new system continues. The bill’s key points as stated in the press release are:

• Make shuttle retirement dependent on the availability of replacement capabilities for comparable size crew and cargo delivery, whether government-owned or commercial, (assuming a rate of 2 missions a year), or until it is conclusively demonstrated that it is the space shuttle cargo capabilities are not needed to ensure space station viability;
• Require International Space Station (ISS) operations and full utilization through at least 2020, and further establish the ISS National Laboratory operating mechanisms and procedures;
• Provide for the acceleration of a government-owned human space flight capability to as close to 2015 as possible;
• Expand support for Commercial Orbital Space Transportation (COTS) to support ISS — both for cargo and for eventual crew launch capability;
• Reaffirm long-term goal of moving beyond low-Earth orbit whether to the Moon, Mars or alternative destinations;
• Provide for the near-term evaluation of heavy-lift rocket launcher design options, including shuttle-derived options, to enable the expansion beyond low-earth orbit and accelerate the start of vehicle design activity; and
• Authorize top-level funding for all of NASA’s mission activities, but would only address the human space flight policy issues.

A SpacePolicyOnline.com summary of the Feb. 25, 2010 House Science and Technology Committee’s hearing on the NASA’s FY2011 budget request is now available. Find it on our left menu under “Our Hearing Summaries” or simply click here.

The presentations from most of the speakers to the Feb. 22-23 meeting of the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Planetary Science Decadal Survey in Irvine, CA are now available at SpacePolicyOnline.com. See our “National Research Council” category on our left menu and scroll down to the Planetary Science Decadal Survey or click here.

The following presentations were made to the Survey Committee of the National Research Council’s Planetary Science Decadal Survey during its meeting on Feb. 22-23, 2010 in Irvine, CA. Titles are from the agenda for the meeting. The slides from some of the presentations are not yet available and will be added later if possible. Some of the presentations are large and take a moment or two to load; please be patient.

• Availability of Launch Vehicles, Warren Frick, Orbital Sciences
• Aerocapture, Tom Spilker, JPL, and Michelle Monk, NASA Langley Research Center
• SEP for Outer Solar System Missions, John Brophy, JPL and Eric Pencil, NASA Glenn Research Center
• Planetary Balloons, Julian Nott, Nott Technology, LLC, and Jeff Hall, JPL
• Status of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Program, James Green, NASA Headquarters
• Mars Exploration Status Report, Doug McCuistion, NASA Headquarters
• Mars Sample Return: Science Overview, Phil Christensen, Arizona State University
• Mars Sample Return: Architecture Overview, Fuk Li, JPL
• Mars Sample Return: Technology Issues, Samad Hayati, JPL
• Status of Instrumentation Technologies, Chris Webster, JPL
• Enabling Foundations for NASA’s Space Science Missions, Lennard Fisk, University of Michigan

Andy Pasztor in today’s Wall Street Journal says that NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden “was surprised at the anger evident” at last week’s congressional hearings before a Senate Commerce subcommittee and the House Science and Technology Committee. The article asserts that Mr. Bolden’s “policies as well as his management style are under increasing attack,” but also quotes an unnamed NASA spokesman as saying that he has not “‘seen any evidence of [Mr. Bolden] being concerned about his ability’ to effectively lead the agency.”