11) Finally, the Commission did not do that which would have been most valuable - rendering a clear-eyed, independent assessment of the progress and status of Constellation with respect to its ability to meet goals which have been established in two successive NASA Authorization Acts ...
Griffin seems to be confused about goals. The Augustine committee doesn't need to concern itself with "goals" that people like Senator Shelby and Griffin himself pushed through a past Congress. The committee needs to concern itself with the goals it was given in its charter: encouraging commercial space, fitting the budget, getting U.S. ISS support online faster than the program of record, getting beyond LEO, balancing operations with R&D as well as precursor and helper robotics, bringing international participation into the picture, and evaluating a longer ISS lifespan. That's what the committee was told to do, and that's what it did. Clearly the program of record fails in every one of these areas except perhaps for getting beyond LEO, so what is there to assess?
If we want to take a step back and assess how the program of record is meeting its goals, look to the Vision for Space Exploration document, which clearly specifies what the goals are for the VSE: exploration designed to deliver economic, security, and science benefits in the context of commercial and international participation. It's spelled out very plainly at the beginning of the document. The program of record just as plainly is failing to do these things, with the exception of some bright spots like LRO/LCROSS (and others). This isn't controversial - the program of record isn't even trying to do these things.
Griffin might assume that the HSF committee would disregard their charter and do something more to their (or his) tastes. Fortunately they did their job.
... followed by an assessment of what would be required to get and keep that program on track. Instead, the Commission sought to formulate new options for new programs...
Again, the Augustine committee charter is to formulate options - and since that's plural and the program of record is only one option, by definition that means at least some of the options will be "new programs". It's in their charter, so it's what they did. If Griffin wants to take issue with the Augustine committee's charter, he should take it up with OSTP, not the Augustine committee. However, I suspect he will have a hard time convincing OSTP that the elements of the charter are inappropriate.
Finally, it's not as if the Augustine committee ignored the program of record. They spent quite a lot of time on it, and it does appear as a baseline reference in their suite of options.
Dr. Griffin on the Augustine Committee - Part 11 o...
Dr. Griffin on the Augustine Committee - Part 10 o...
Dr. Griffin on the Augustine Committee - Part 9 of...
Dr. Griffin on the Augustine Committee - Part 8 of...
Dr. Griffin on the Augustine Committee - Part 7 of...
Dr. Griffin on the Augustine Committee - Part 6 of...
Dr. Griffin on the Augustine Committee - Part 5 of...
Dr. Griffin on the Augustine Committee - Part 4 of...
Dr. Griffin on the Augustine Committee - Part 3 of...
Dr. Griffin on the Augustine Committee - Part 2 of...
Dr. Griffin on the Augustine Committee - Part 1 of...
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