NASA vs Congress

With Congress still debating the relative merits of the NASA budget, 62 House members signed a letter to President Obama "to express concern" over the direction of NASA. There is currently a lot of rumor floating around about what Congress official stand on the NASA plan is, but they appear to have an unhealthy love for the Constellation program. They have solicited legal advice on NASA's efforts to prepare Constellation for the end even before the budget issues are resolved and have repeatedly tried to derail or at least stall those preparations. In the meantime, there is the possibility that shuttle flights will be extended to close the gap between it and future crew launch capabilities. Throughout all of this is a multitude of self-proclaimed experts, all with their own solutions trying to get either Congress or NASA or both to listen to them, most of them include salvaging Constellation as a whole or in part. It is ironic that few are listening to the people we put in place to know about just this kind of problem... the people who brought to light the failings of Constellation and a way to surmount those problems and continue the space programs manned missions: NASA personnel themselves. The latest shot fired by Congress is a clause in the new budget that says that NASA may not cancel a project or start a new one without Congressional approval. Such a move could be the death knell for NASA if the budget passes as it currently is. It is hard to imagine a more impotent space agency than one that hands over control of which projects are worthy to Congress.

We are losing our space program, or at least the manned mission side of it. It began after Apollo was canceled. We've been in low earth orbit ever since with no plans to go beyond, and now we are cut off even from that. Whether NASA's new direction is the right way or not may not matter if things become so confused if so many unqualified people can have a say in what happens. Congress is worried about jobs in their various constituencies and former employees, directors and space fans are placing a disproportionate level of authority on their opinions. No one seems to be content with letting NASA call the shots and rise or fall on the merits of their plan. The NASA administration is supposed to be THE experts on our space program. They are closest to the problems and understand potential solutions better than anyone, yet they are continually second-guessed and outright told they are wrong.

To put it in simple terms, how likely is it that NASA administrator Bolden or President Obama are deliberately trying to sabotage our space program, and how likely is it that Congress (collectively or individually) knows more about how to run the space program than the people put in place to actually do it?

No one is saying that NASA should get everything they want. Obviously amid the current economic crisis, budgets all over are tightening or simply being plundered. Congress is responsible for the bill and they should decide how much money our space program is worth, but shouldn't how that money is spent be left up to the people that were picked to know how to run it?