Bolden Authorizes a Losing Strategy - A Compromise "Plan B" for NASA

Having run,last week, into a buzz saw of Congressional opposition to President Obama's attempt to shut down the space agency's manned space program, Administrator Charlie Bolden has authorized the Johnson Space Center to prepare of a compromise "Plan B" for NASA, before Bolden meets in private by the end of this week with Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), who chairs the House Science & Technology Committee. This compromise would propose to save chunks of the Constellation program, the Wall Street Journal reports today, in an effort to please Congress.

It is also indicative of the internal division within the agency of how to respond to this frontal assault. The memo, written on March 2 by JSC Center Director and former astronaut, Michael Coats, notes, however, that it is "unlikely" that NASA will get any more money from the behavioral economists in the White House. A team is being put together of top Constellation managers to try to produce this "compromise." Apparently, no details or guidance is provided at all in the memo.

As is plainly clear, the only way to "save" Constellation is to leave the program on the track it is on, and add the $3 million per year more that is required to complete the program as efficiently as possible. You cannot "compromise" with evil, which is what Obama and his behaviorist team represent. You just have to defeat it.