Obama May Link NASA With Pentagon to Speed Up Moon Mission

[Matt Molnar]

Bloomberg:
Obama Moves to Counter China With Pentagon-NASA Link (Update1) (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&refer=home&sid=aGMy_XFWN_VY)

By Demian McLean

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama will probably tear down long-standing barriers between the U.S.’s civilian and military space programs to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China.

Obama’s transition team is considering a collaboration between the Defense Department and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration because military rockets may be cheaper and ready sooner than the space agency’s planned launch vehicle, which isn’t slated to fly until 2015, according to people who’ve discussed the idea with the Obama team.

The potential change comes as Pentagon concerns are rising over China’s space ambitions because of what is perceived as an eventual threat to U.S. defense satellites, the lofty battlefield eyes of the military. [Full Article (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&refer=home&sid=aGMy_XFWN_VY)]

[Jetinder]

I've always thought the Titan IIIC rockets where more powerful than the shuttle.

What about all the money currently invested in the new Nasa rockets (to replace the shuttle) won't that be wasted if Obama uses souped up military rockets instead ?

[GrummanFan]

It would be very expensive to retrofit military rockets in order to carry human cargo. Such rockets need to have multiple redundancies for all systems within them for safety reasons, and it's much more difficult to retrofit those rockets than it may seem. It would make sense though to use the currently available rockets to carry non-living cargo to the space station, and increased teamwork and cooperation between the departments may make the program move a bit faster.

[Matt Molnar]

I would think they could refit ICBMs relatively easily to deliver cargo to the ISS...certainly a better option than relying on Russia. Not sure that this would help the moon mission, though. As the article mentions, the people suggesting these options don't seem to know anything about rockets.