In her remarks to the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation meeting on Thursday, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said that turning low Earth orbit (LEO) human spaceflight over to the private sector while keeping NASA focused on technology development would mean that each will be doing what it does best: “Commercial industry will do the things that it does best – designing and building the trains, owning and maintaining the trains, and then making them run on time.”

Are passenger trains the right model to be emulated by the commercial crew industry NASA wants to create?

The title of this Congressional Research Service report — “Amtrak: Budget and Reauthorization” — alone tells the tale. Intercity passenger rail in this country is largely paid for by the government. As the CRS report explains:

“Amtrak is structured as a private company, but virtually all its shares are held by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). Amtrak was created by Congress in 1970 to maintain a minimum level of intercity passenger rail service, while relieving the railroad companies of the financial burden of providing that money-losing service. Although created as a for-profit corporation, Amtrak, like intercity passenger rail operators in other countries, has not been able to make a profit. During the last 35 years, federal assistance to Amtrak has amounted to approximately $30 billion.”

If NASA wants to convince everyone that commercial crew would relieve the government of a financial burden, not create one, it might want to pick a different model. Congress is all too familiar with Amtrak.

The Wall Street Journal today offers a pro/con debate on NASA’s new plan. Taylor Dinerman faces off against Peter Diamandis. (Much of the Wall Street Journal’s content is available by subscription only; apologies if the link does not work.)

Yesterday we posted an article pointing out two op-ed pieces by Republican or Republican-leaning commentators opposing President Obama’s new plan for NASA. Two other Republicans — former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former chairman of the House Science Committee, Bob Walker — published a joint op-ed in the Washington Times supporting the plan. Considering how rarely Republicans praise anything the Democrats do these days, the op-ed is especially noteworthy.

Mr. Walker, who chaired the 2002 Commision on the Future of the Aerospace Industry, cited that commision, a 2004 commission chaired by former Secretary of the Air Force Pete Aldridge, and the 2009 Augustine committee as all recommending greater reliance on the private sector for space activities and criticized NASA for ignoring that advice until now. Mr. Gingrich is identified in the op-ed as being a member of the Board of Governors of the National Space Society (NSS). The NSS came out in opposition to President Obama’s plan to terminate the Constellation program last week, although what it wants is restoration of NASA’s plans to send humans beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). As for whether human transportation to and from LEO should be turned over to the private sector, the main theme of the Gingrich/Walker op-ed, NSS said it makes sense once the commercial services “have been demonstrated to be safe.”

Of the many opinion pieces about NASA’s new plan for human space flight, at least two conclude that Americans no longer care about sending humans into space. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat writes in The End of the Space Age that “‘Avatar,’ not NASA, probably represents the future of the American relationship to distant planets.” In today’s Wall Street Journal, Craig Nelson, author of “Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon,” offers that someday “Americans will once again insist on being at the forefront of manned space travel. They do not insist on it in 2010.”

Editor’s Note: NASA wants to convince everyone that its new plan does not mean the United States is abandoning human space flight, just that from now on it will be conducted by the private sector instead of the government. The perception, though, is that it’s the 1970s all over again. Worse, in fact, since then the shuttle was in development so there was a clear path forward even if it meant a 6-year hiatus in U.S. human space flight.

The profound change that the President and NASA are proposing deserves serious consideration. As Congress begins its debate over the proposal, perhaps it should seek a mechanism to more fully involve the public. As Douthat and Nelson make clear, it’s their future.

If nothing else, President Obama’s new plan for NASA has generated a lot of interest on the editorial pages of leading media outlets and elsewhere. Two definite “no” votes are from Harrison Schmitt and Charles Krauthammer.

Schmitt is the only scientist (Ph.D., geology) to walk on the Moon and a former U.S. Senator. A Republican, he hopes this year’s elections will change NASA’s course: “American leadership absent from space? Is this the future we wish for our progeny? I think not. Again, the 2010 elections offer the way to get back on the right track.”

Schmitt chaired the NASA Advisory Council during most of the time that Mike Griffin was NASA Administrator so his support for Griffin’s Constellation program is not surprising. The other op-ed is by Washington Post columnist Krauthammer (M.D., psychiatry). A critic of President Obama, he minces no words in opposing the plan: “Fifty years ago, Kennedy opened the New Frontier. Obama has just shut it.”

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), chairman of the Senate subcommittee that authorizes NASA activities, took to the floor of the Senate Tuesday to both praise and criticize President Obama’s FY2011 budget request for NASA.

The praise was for the addition of $6 billion to the NASA budget over the next five years, extension of the U.S. commitment to the International Space Station to 2020, and increasing technology development for a new heavy lift launch vehicle. However, he strongly criticized the President’s decision to cancel the Constellation program and urged the President to “repair the image” that he is killing the human space flight program.

Emphasizing that only Presidents can set the vision for the U.S. space program, Senator Nelson called on the President to set a goal of human exploration of Mars, noting that the New York Times endorsed that goal in a recent editorial. He argued for continued tests of the Ares I rocket as a precursor to whatever heavy lift launch vehicle is developed. He concluded by saying —

“I urge the White House to start listening to some of their most vigorous supporters in the Congress. I can tell you other Members on both sides of the aisle are not pleased with the way the President’s message about the future of human spaceflight has been received. If we can work together, we can get the perception of our space exploration back on track.”

The video of his remarks and a transcript are available on C-SPAN’s website. A statement on the Senator’s website says that his subcommittee (the Science and Space Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee) will hold a hearing on this issue on February 24.

Representative Vern Ehlers (R-Mich) announced today that he will not seek re-election. One of the few scientists in Congress, Rep. Ehlers is an influential and well-respected voice on the House Science and Technology Committee.

Rep. Ehlers has a doctorate in nuclear physics from the University of California-Berkeley and after 6 years of research and teaching there, moved back home to Grand Rapids, MI to teach physics at Calvin College (where he had started his undergraduate studies). He served in the Michigan legislature, and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1993. The 76-year-old Congressman said he wanted to spend more time with his family. Media reports say that his wife suffered a heart attack last week. They also note that another Republican has decided to challenge him in the primary.

Another victim of the Washington snowstorms: organizers have decided to postpone the day-long “State of the Agency” seminar at NASA that had been scheduled for Friday, Feb. 12. A new date will be announced in due course.

The New York Times editorial page commented on NASA’s new plan today. Bottom line: “If done right, the president’s strategy could pay off handsomely. If not, it could be the start of a long, slow decline from the nation’s pre-eminent position as a space-faring power.”

The remarkable winter storms hitting Washington, DC have led to postponment of much of Congress’ work this week. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees, House Appropriations Committee, and House Science and Technology Committee have postponed or cancelled their planned hearings this week.

Arlington, VA, home of SpacePolicyOnline.com, got 25 inches of snow on Friday and Saturday. Roads are barely passable today (Tuesday). Another 10-20 inches of snow are forecast for this afternoon through tomorrow night.