An Open Letter to NASA

NOTE: Please feel free to use this letter for your own efforts to support Project Constellation. It may also be appropriately modified for use in letters to the President, Members of Congress, and Senators.


February 14, 2010

The Honorable Charles Bolden
Administrator
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
300 E Street, SW
Washington, DC 20546-0001

Dear Administrator Bolden:

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the Agency's reported actions that have the effect of terminating Project Constellation.

For the last five decades, an enduring national consensus has been achieved that the United States must lead in the development and implementation of the means to send astronauts to explore outer space. President Kennedy's clarion call to land a man on the Moon before the decade was out resulted in the realization of mankind's long-held dream of setting foot on another world. Regardless of political party, millions of Americans and billions of others around the world stand in awe of NASA's achievements showing that our civilization, and indeed our species, need not be limited to Earth. The investment in technology developed in support of our manned efforts have yielded untold tangible benefits to our economy through basic science followed programmically by innovation and invention. For a time, the promise of exploiting the infinite resources of the universe loomed large in the national consciousness.

Recently, however, this promise has been betrayed as decisions by successive Presidential Administrations have kept NASA limited to low-Earth orbit. Resources that could have been productively used to extend the reach of humanity have instead been diverted to the construction of a space station whose utility has been widely questioned. After the termination of the Apollo program and until the development of vehicles for Project Constellation, spearheaded by NASA and supported by a bipartisan Congressional consensus for five years, the United States now lacks any means of enabling astronauts to break the bonds of Earth orbit.

While promised programs to develop "next generation" propulsion technologies may appear attractive, merely increasing the outlay for research and development toward their realization is a far cry from the actual construction of human-rated vehicles, such as the Orion and Ares, based on mature technologies already developed and successfully implemented for the Space Transportation System. As several former astronauts and many others with an abiding interest and expertise in our national objectives in space have observed, cancelling Project Constellation in the hopes that such "next generation" programs will yield results represents a giant step backward from what has already been achieved.

On behalf of millions of others who share my sentiments, I strongly urge that you heed the calls of Members of Congress and others to stop the damage to Project Constellation before it's too late.

While most Americans would agree with the need for financial responsibility in the expenditure of Federal funds, plans to terminate Project Constellation in favor of new objectives are not the way to achieve it. Our future depends on continuing the path toward success represented by Project Constellation, Ares, and Orion.

Thank you.