Whose Mission Should this Be?
Many aerospace engineers would immediately think this task is something that NASA should be in charge of. It was, after all, NASA that built the Saturn V rocket that put humans on the moon; and it was NASA who built the Space Shuttle, which despite having huge operational costs actually came in very close to budget when it was being designed [4]. NASA, however, should not build the Delta Clipper.
NASA is a consumer of launch services, not a supplier. In the early days of rocketry, the technology to put satellites and people into orbit was new and untried. Thus it only made sense that the agency tasked with performing research and development for all things that fly be the same group to put this new technology to use. However, this technology is now old and proven. To see this separation between using and developing new launch vehicles, it is helpful to examine NASA’s mission statement.
NASA’s Mission Statement…
… To understand and protect our home planet
… To explore the Universe and search for life
… To inspire the next generation of explorers
… as only NASA can.
According to Sean O’Keefe, NASA Administrator, NASA’s mission is to improve life here on earth, extend life past Earth, and to find life elsewhere in the Universe [5]. They are tasked with doing the things that cannot be done elsewhere. To this end they are a consumer of launch services. NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) performed research on wing sections (the shape of a wing at various points along a plane’s wing) [7]. This research was used, and is still being used, to build aircraft ranging from small general aviation aircraft to military aircraft. This is an example of how NASA does the research on new technologies and commercial entities build products using that research.
NASA, being a government agency, also suffers from bureaucracy. Projects are analyzed by Congress and budgets are set by people outside of NASA, people who do not share NASA’s mission. The Space Shuttle is a study in compromises between NASA, the Department of Defense (DoD), and Congress. The Space Shuttle was meant to be more than it could achieve [4]. An example of relatively unhindered success is the DC-X program itself. The team responsible for the rocket was affected by politics only in obtaining the funding needed. For $60 million they built a rocket that performed feats no other rocket has ever achieved.
If NASA should not build this new rocket, it might be argued that one of the large Aerospace companies should build it. It was, in fact, one of these companies that built the original DC-X to begin with. These companies tend to suffer from similar levels of bureaucracy. What is needed is a fresh approach to the issue of a new vehicle.
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