Guest: James (Jim) Muncy. Topics: NASA space policy, commercial crew, commercial space, space policy. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed back Jim Muncy to talk about new and important development in space policy and the move to commercial launchers and hardware. We do want your feedback so do post your comments, questions, & thoughts regarding our discussion on the blog URL above. We want to hear from you. You can also email our guest or me. If you do email Jim, please copy me on the note as feedback with our guests is important for The Space Show. In our first hour long segment of a two hour discussion, Mr. Muncy started out talking about space policy, the Space Launch System (SLS), various senators and NASA centers, all comprising a comprehensive and timely overview of the current status of important space policy issues facing today's space program. We also talked about the probable move away from the SAA to the FAR. Jim suggested that at least if they follow the FAR, they should use Part 12 regarding Commercial Procurement as the burden on the companies will be somewhat less and hopefully more manageable. Space policy, NASA oversight, Congress, and who controls what between the government and the private companies were the dominant topics discussed in detail during this segment. Jim had much to say, explained issues very clearly and as I said above, we want to know your thoughts & comments regarding this discussion. Also in our first segment, we talked about the U.S & global economic situation and we related it to Congress and the NASA budget. Near the end of the segment, Jim was asked about dual use space technology with the DOD. Here, he talked about ATK's segmented SRBs for NASA and SRBs used for ICBMs. Jim had much to say about SRBs for human space flight, mostly on the economic issues, comparing them with liquid rocket alternatives such as EELV & Falcon 9. You do not want to miss this discussion as he also applied the information directly to the SLS, offering a way to make it more useful & economic. Our second segment started with Tim's question about Space X & others taking government money and being assimilated into the NASA culture. Jim had much to say about this, don't miss it. Marshall asked who really made the policy decisions & this too initiated an important discussion. We spoke a lot about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA budgets, & the NASA science projects methodology leading to delays & cost overruns. Our next topic was the proposed cut in the commercial crew budget by the House. In the remaining time, we talked more about SRBs, what makes a viable NASA project/mission, & more. In conclusion, Jim said we needed a different space policy & NASA purpose. Space needs to cease being seen as a luxury. Instead, it has to connect to us to be relevant. Don't miss his words of wisdom. Jim's email address is james.muncy@polispace.com. Please use the blog URL as well.
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