COCHRAN ASSURED OF STENNIS SPACE CENTER’S FUTURE
AS NASA LOOKS TOWARD SWEEPING MISSION CHANGES

Senator Questions Lack of Designated Funds for Rocket Engine Test Facilities at Stennis

(Click here to access video or audio from the hearing.)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today gained assurances that the Stennis Space Center will have a robust future as a testing facility whether or not Congress agrees to the sweeping changes proposed for NASA by the Obama administration.

Cochran questioned NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr., about Stennis during a hearing to review the FY2011 budget request for the space agency.  Cochran, as an ex-officio member of the Senate Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee, took part in the review of the NASA budget.

Cochran questioned the role of testing and safety in the administration’s controversial plans for NASA, which would involve cancelling or significantly restructuring the Constellation program and relying instead on commercial spacecraft to move astronauts and cargo into space.  The President’s plan would replace Constellation’s deep space launch activities with a new NASA-built Heavy Lift Vehicle, set to be selected no later than 2015.

“The Stennis Space Center provides test facilities and experience to help make sure that we do have demonstrated reliability, which is necessary to meet NASA safety standards.  The United States space program today and in the future must rely on safety and testing, both of which are specialties at Stennis,” Cochran said.  “As we move forward, I want assurances that our facilities at Stennis will play an integral role in advancing American space exploration.”

Responding to Cochran’s concern that the NASA budget request does not recommend specific funding for tests or facility upgrades a Stennis, Bolden stressed the need for a “robust testing program” and pointed to $312 million for commercial space testing, some of which will take place at Stennis.  Bolden also noted ongoing work to retrofit the A-3 test stand at Stennis and the overall need to test space engine propulsion and Heavy Lift Vehicle systems.

“Stennis is critical,” Bolden emphatically testified.  “It is vital to the future of any kind of space flight because we want it to be the center for testing of propulsion systems whether they be for the military, commercial or NASA.”

Cochran, who is vice chairman of the full Senate Appropriations Committee, welcomed Bolden’s assurances and expressed his desire for the Appropriations Committee to work with the space agency to “identify how we can invest the public funds” to broaden NASA’s capabilities in space.

“I appreciate the assurances Administrator Bolden provided regarding the current and future importance of the testing capabilities at Stennis,” Cochran said.  “As NASA looks to Congress for approval of its plan to rely on the commercial industry, it is important that a large emphasis be placed on safety and testing.  It is imperative that NASA make a commitment to invest in testing facilities as it is impossible to launch a vehicle without adequate testing.”

The NASA budget proposes, among other things, $2.0 billion over five years—$428 million in FY2011—to construct a 21st Century Launch Complex at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  It does not, however, recommend any specific funding for major facility projects at Stennis.

The administration’s plan calls for $6.1 billion over five years to encourage commercial space firms to develop and launch spacecraft that would take astronauts and cargo into low earth orbit by 2015.  It also recommends $1.9 billion in FY2011 to cancel the Constellation program and its associated Ares launch vehicles.

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