"Additional time is needed
to respond to findings and recommendations received by NASA from an external
review team from Slay Enterprises Inc. of Warrenton, Virginia, during the 'draft
RFP' period," Newton said.
Slay Enterprises is led
by retired General Alton Slay, former commander of the Air Force Systems Command,
Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Slay also chaired a National Research Council
Committee on Shuttle Criticality Review and Hazard Analysis Audit following
the shuttle Challenger accident in 1986.
The new target date for
issuing the RFP is "no earlier" than Dec. 1, Newton told SPACE.com.
Congress concerns
The OSP effort is projected
to cost $11 billion to $13 billion, according to Dennis Smith, Orbital Space
Plane program manager at the Marshall.
Over the last several weeks,
a key leader in Congress has repeatedly requested that NASA not go forward on
the OSP initiative without more details on how the vehicle fits into NASA's
overall program. Furthermore, the price tag for the project has been called
to question.
Congressman Sherwood Boehlert,
Chairman of the influential Committee on Science, has aired those complaints
in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Boehlert, a Republican from
New York, reiterated his OSP views recently during a Nov. 20 breakfast meeting
of the Space Transportation Association, a confab of organizations that provide
launch and other space services for the government and private sector.
"It's wrong to expect Congress
to sign on to soliciting or awarding a contract for OSP when no one can tell
us how the OSP fits into the future of NASA, or remotely how much the project
will cost. You'd think Congress had learned that lesson by now," Boehlert said.
Next important step
As he has done in past months,
Boehlert called for a "full, open and honest debate" on how to proceed. "NASA
needs to be far more accurate in describing the capabilities, risks and costs
of its projects and more honest about when it just doesn't know," the lawmaker
said. "I hope we can have that kind of debate, and we'll see where it leads
us."
But it is clear that NASA
does consider OSP a major element in a much larger space vision.
Gary Martin, NASA's space
architect told SPACE.com that "the OSP represents NASA's next important
step for future exploration missions."
"We plan to optimize its
use within our architectures," Martin said. "It may be the elevator to and from
low Earth orbit, and many of its systems may be the foundation for the next
generation of deep space crewed vehicles."
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