Obama signs bill turning over space shuttle replacement work to commercial firms

President Obama signed legislation that formally hands over the development of a replacement for the space shuttles to the private sector, leaving NASA to focus on developing a heavy-lift spacecraft for human exploration to asteroids and Mars. The act also instructs NASA to add one more space shuttle flight, postponing the shuttles’ retirement until mid-2011.

The bill Obama signed into law on 11 October was identical to the version passed by the Senate . The House had also passed a NASA bill, but lawmakers there decided to accept the Senate version to ensure passage this year. While the measure represented an endorsement of Obama’s plan for the agency, the White House dispensed with the usual ceremony that accompanies the signing of major legislation, marking a quiet end to the raucous fight that numerous lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had mounted to save the Bush-era Constellation program .

Still, the $19 billion that the measure authorized for NASA for the year that began 1 October—the full amount requested by Obama—hasn’t been appropriated. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the request in July, but spending bills have stalled, with lawmakers expected to take them up in a lame duck session this month.

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), a former astronaut, told reporters that worries a number of former astronauts had expressed about private sector development of new spacecraft for ferrying crew and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) have been assuaged. After being assured that companies such as Boeing would be competing for the business, Nelson said, the former astronauts “realized that it’s going to be all-in with regard to NASA making sure of the safety, and that the best and brightest are going to compete.”

NASA will continue with the development of a heavy-lift launcher capable of taking astronauts to nearby asteroids, and later to Mars. That spacecraft is expected to cost $11.5 billion over six years.

In an 8 October letter to House appropriators, House Science and Technology Committee chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) and other panel members pointed to several concerns that they had with the Senate bill. For one, they said, the added shuttle flight would cost $500 million that NASA doesn’t have. The shuttles were supposed to be permanently grounded by this time, but three more flights are now planned.

Despite their reservations, the House members said reauthorization was necessary “to provide a degree of certainty, stability, and clarity for our nation’s space program, the NASA workforce, and NASA communities around the country.”

The new law also officially extends the life of the ISS at least through 2020. Under President George W. Bush’s policy, the ISS had faced the possibility of de-orbiting as soon as 2016.

“We have been given a new path in space that will enable our country to develop greater capabilities, transforming the state of the art in aerospace technologies,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement . “We will continue to maintain and expand vital partnerships around the world. It will help us retool for the industries and jobs of the future that will be vital for long term economic growth and national security.”

David Kramer