Lawmakers produce Bill to extend shuttle to 2015, utilize CxP, advance HLV

Senator Kay Hutchison – in conjunction with Representatives Suzanne Kosmas and Bill Posey – has produced a 37 page Bill that proposes major refinements to NASA’s FY2011 proposal, and NASA’s forward plan. The Bill is centered around a shuttle extension to 2015, in support of fully utilizing the International Space Station (ISS), along with saving elements of Constellation – such as Orion and a Heavy Lift Launcher (HLV).
Shuttle Extension:
Efforts to reverse the 2010 retirement date of the shuttle fleet have been ongoing for a few years, without being realized – partly due to a lack of support from successive NASA administrators.
Former NASA boss Mike Griffin even worked directly against extension – mainly via protection of the Ares I launch vehicle’s budget – often citing safety concerns which had no basis in post Return To Flight reality.
With a level of support for an extension of the shuttle manifest – in tandem with the development of a Shuttle Derived HLV – gained at the Augustine Committee review into NASA’s Human Space Flight program, the door was opened for building on a 2008 Senate Bill that had already actioned pre-emptive measures to protect shuttle-related assets from decommissioning.
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