The TEA Party in Space Mission Statement

Please see the article here at Spaceflight Now.  You can also see Mr. Keith Cowing at NASAWatch also has a notice this.  This is a serious situation that is not getting attention since Hurricane Irene is doing a great job of sucking up the media coverage right now.

Today Russia announced it will have two test launches of the Soyuz rocket before carrying humans to the ISS.  This means that as of now, the world cannot launch humans to ISS.  There is enough poor planning to go around on this one.  NASA, Congress, Presidents Bush and Obama.  The plans drawn up by the rocket wizards in the senate are too grandiose.  We simply cannot afford the Constellations and SLSs of the world.  Sadly, due to our debt, we could not afford Apollo today.

I would like to personally thank TPMMuckraker for a very "fair and balanced" interview.  Nothing was taken out of context and I really appreciate the time.  Thanks to Alan Combs for the blast.  We are non-partisan.   I hope EVERYONE looks at our platform. However, whoever is spamming the comment box from 76.206.40.7 we get it.  You are mad the Tea Party has cogent space policy that people from the left and right helped to write.  I am happy to approve all c

The US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee did the correct thing in terminating the James Webb Space Telescope.  TPIS will publicly release all of our data later this fall pertaining to JWST and then people will understand why our position is termination.  It is the fiscally responsible thing to do.  However, during this debate it was brought to my attention that there is a real fear in the science community about what will happen to science inside NASA. We "assumed" our platform, section three, was enough to at least temper some of the fears inside Science Mission Directorate (SMD).  Clearly, it was not enough.  So what we would like to do right now is point out the economic realities and also provide a specific solution.

Attention NASA:  Your budget is being slashed.  Your two most high profile programs James Webb Space Telescope which is a decade behind schedule and at least $5 billion over budget an the Constellation/SLS program has spent no less than $13 billion and we have not even achieved anything more than PowerPoint.  These two programs use Cost Plus contracting and are run by you, NASA. Meanwhile, you have two very successful programs in the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) and Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) which have Space Act Agreements (SSAs) and milestone based payments utilizing NASA oversight.  The total costs for  these programs since 2008 is less than $2 billion.

Overview Time Required: 20 Minutes or less Actions Required: One phone call and one email When: Monday July 11th and Tuesday July 12th What: Contact your Representative's DC office and ask them to tell the House Appropriations Committee leadership to stop supporting the Space Launch System Earmark and Bailout and ask to compete the contracts for the Space Launch System. Then email the results of your phone conversation to: [url=mailto:info@teainspace.com?subject=Congressional%20Follow%20Up]info@teainspace.com[/url] [img]/modules/wysiwyg/plugins/break/images/spacer.gif[/img]Friends, As we know, we must be ever vigilant as our elected officials begin the 2012 budget cycle. While the appropriations committee did brave work as we begin to rightsizing NASA, it was all negated by a single action. Both sides of the aisle have pledged to end earmarks, yet one still remains: The Space Launch System.

Sometimes, less is more.  God Bless Atlantis and her crew on STS-135.  As we come to an end of the shuttle program, lets figure out how we can have just as much success with new vehicles using new technology.  Let us look to the heavens and say, America just does not come to explore... ...we come to settle.