Burt Rutan Clarifies Position on Proposed Constellation Cancellation

Burt Rutan, the highly respected, outspoken aerospace engineer who designed SpaceShipOne and other innovative aerospace vehicles, wrote a letter to Congressman Frank Wolf (posted on the Congressman’s website) widely interpreted as being critical of President Obama’s decision to terminate the Constellation program and instead rely on commercial companies to send NASA astronauts to low Earth orbit. Concerned about how the letter is being characterized in the press, Mr. Rutan wrote some clarifying comments that are posted on Rob Coppinger’s Hyperbola blog.

It appears that Mr. Rutan wants to avoid upsetting those who advocate commercial crew while at the same time warning against America abandoning its leadership in human space flight by taking NASA out of the picture. His emphasis in both missives is that NASA should focus on research leading to technical breakthroughs (which suggests that he should support the President’s proposal), but that the United States needs to remain in the forefront of human space exploration (which it might not under the President’s proposal). Mr. Rutan’s stature in the aerospace community gives his voice considerable weight, particularly for those advocating commercial space activities. His letter to Congressman Wolf received a lot of attention precisely because it was viewed as supporting a government-run program over a commercial program.