House to VOTE on Senate Bill Wed Sept 29, 2010

[rcsplinters]

I understand there is a companion document to the passed bill (S. 3729) which describes the HLV envisioned by the Senate in some greater detail. Does anyone know if that document exists for certain. If so, a link would be greatly appreciated. I think this is not the Final HESF Phase I PDF which was recently release by NASA but could be mistaken on that point.

Also, as I understand the bill, the core SLS must have the capability to boost the capsule formerly known as Orion into LEO. Does this suggest that the 12/31/2016 deadline mentioned in the bill for operational readiness of the core system be human rated? I'm mainly interested in whether that is the intent and interpretation by the legislature and NASA of this bill. Any links to commentary on this by NASA administration would be appreciated.

 

[rockett]

I understand there is a companion document to the passed bill (S. 3729) which describes the HLV envisioned by the Senate in some greater detail. Does anyone know if that document exists for certain. If so, a link would be greatly appreciated. I think this is not the Final HESF Phase I PDF which was recently release by NASA but could be mistaken on that point.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.3729:

Also, as I understand the bill, the core SLS must have the capability to boost the capsule formerly known as Orion into LEO. Does this suggest that the 12/31/2016 deadline mentioned in the bill for operational readiness of the core system be human rated? I'm mainly interested in whether that is the intent and interpretation by the legislature and NASA of this bill. Any links to commentary on this by NASA administration would be appreciated.

I suspect that will be the case...

 

[rcsplinters]

Rockett,

Thanks for that link. Actually, I think that's the senate bill itself. This is a positional or "white" paper which addresses the concept of heavy lift according to the Senate. Of course, NASA wrote the thing, but still was a Senate document. I was discussing with some others around the water cooler and they also seem to remember this. One guy thought we'd discussed it in a local mail thread so I'll got back in my email to see if I can find a link. If so, I'll post it here.

Regarding human rating the core, that's also my take. I'm just curious how the decision makers will look at it.

I think back to that SD-HLV side mount slide deck. Around 8 - 9 billion, short development. Might have been a good fit for this. I'm guessing we're talking Direct now though.