In a classic example of one government hand working without the other’s knowledge, NASA built a half a billion dollar launch tower for a rocket that will likely never be built. If Congress approves Obama’s planned $3.5 billion cut in the Constellation Program, US’s manned spaceflight will be essentially grounded. NASA is losing the means but keeps the starting point for returning to the moon. This will cost Americans more than just the pride of asking Russians for a ride to the International Space Station; Constellation has levied taxpayers $9.4 billion thus far and ending the program would require another $2.5 billion to cancel contracts.
However, as per typical government spending, the astronomical cost of the superfluous tower is nowhere close to its true worth, both within the agency and in the real (a.k.a. accountable) world. The $500 million price tag not only includes design, testing, procurement, and infrastructure but lengthy administration, bureaucratic approval, and, of course, union benefits (an AFL-CIO satellite). If any of the fledgling private companies launching rockets near the Kennedy Space Center needed a new launch platform, you can bet taxpayers would be on the losing side of the deal.
Citing the Las Vegas magicians Penn & Teller’s debunking series, NASA’s Public Relations is the one asset which serves the agency with competence whereas the rest of the bureaucracy is just that: a complex, inefficient relic, continuing to exist in a declining status out of respect for the status quo. I await government PR to spin this positively.