NASA + DoD: Getting Us To The Moon Together?

When we think of "space programs", most of us think of NASA, the space shuttle, the space station, maybe the Mars rovers... It is less known that most of our nation's space budget is spent by the DoD.

Now news is swirling that Obama will try to get NASA to:

1) Scrap its Ares program rockets

2) Replace them with rockets already being used by DoD

(Here's one such article from Bloomberg.)

The news is about cost savings or cost sharing. I am starting to believe that the Obama years will be punctuated by pragmatism. I believe this is why he is keeping Bob Gates as his Secretary of Defense. I think this is a great move. He gets things done. Aviation Week just named him their "Person of the Year" largely for that reason.

NASA chief Michael Griffin does not have that same pragmatic reputation. He's been implicated in trying to snuff out the opinions of his own scientists regarding global warming. He's also dishonest. In 2005 he had announced that he would not reduce NASA's science budget, but in 2006 slashed it by 25% to pay for manned space programs. Griffin wants us to inhabit the solar system, have nuclear-powered spaceships, et cetera et cetera.

The point is, he has a vision too much his own. Gates thus far seems to be the consumate bureaucrat in the best sense. He executes his boss' vision to the best degree possible. For these reasons and more, I think that the biggest benefit of such a realignment would be to perform an end-run around Griffin and focus on results. If Gates becomes involved in oversight of our moon missions, I think we might just get there. Under Griffin, I suspect we would see schedule slips and cost overruns and, honestly, might still not get there before a future president cans the whole thing.

So I'm cheering for this.