Senate Passes H.R.6586 -- Space Exploration Sustainability Act

[bananas]

Source: SpaceRef

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Space Exploration Sustainability Act'.

SEC. 2. ASSURANCE OF CORE CAPABILITIES.

Section 203 of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2010 (42 U.S.C. 18313) is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(c) Sense of Congress Regarding Human Space Flight Capability Assurance- It is the sense of Congress that the Administrator shall proceed with the utilization of the ISS, technology development, and follow-on transportation systems (including the Space Launch System, multi-purpose crew vehicle, and commercial crew and cargo transportation capabilities) under titles III and IV of this Act in a manner that ensures--

`(1) that these capabilities remain inherently complementary and interrelated;

`(2) a balance of the development, sustainment, and use of each of these capabilities, which are of critical importance to the viability and sustainability of the U.S. space program; and

`(3) that resources required to support the timely and sustainable development of these capabilities authorized in either title III or title IV of this Act are not derived from a reduction in resources for the capabilities authorized in the other title.

`(d) Limitation- Nothing in subsection (c) shall apply to or affect any capability authorized by any other title of this Act'.

Read more: http://spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=43009

[penndragon69]

1. To INFINITY and beyond !!

[sofa king]

2. Just a technical note:

Any paragraph or subsection beginning with the phrase "it is the sense of Congress" carries virtually no legal weight. What Congress is really saying in a "sense of" statement, usually, is something more like, "if you don't fix this problem, we will."

It's a good idea, though. The capabilities, if developed to be complementary, can still be of benefit even when they are underfunded, ignored, and eventually cancelled, which I expect to happen to virtually all of the Bush-era space boondoggles.

But the idea of unified hatches, docking systems, life support systems, with unified attachments and cable interfaces and so on is important. You could even tack some Hall thrusters onto your old manned modules and drag them out to a spare-part orbit, so that future deep-space operations have more options.