Hutchison Introduces Bill to Reduce the Gap in Human Spaceflight

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.