Howard McCurdy's Forum for Space Exploration
Public Policy for Innovation
Reports
National Research Council Report on NASA’s Strategic Direction
In 2012, in response to direction provided in NASA's Appropriation Act, the NASA Office of the Inspector General directed the National Research Council of the National Academies to develop a report on NASA's strategic direction. The report concludes that there is no national consensus on what NASA's strategic direction should be.
National Research Council Report on Human Space Exploration
This report was completed in 2014 and was directed by the NASA Authorization Act to assess the value proposition of human space flight. The report states that there are several rationales for human space flight but the main concern is that the United States does not now have the budget allocated to pursue a successful long-term human space flight program.
Pioneering the Space Frontier
Commonly referred to as the Paine Report, this report features an optimistic view of the future of space flight. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by the Challenger tragedy that occurred just before its release in 1986. However, the report features a fascinating perspective of space focused on the provision of benefit.
GAO Report on NASA's Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has some concerns about rthe first heavy-lift launch vehicle NASA has developed in 40 years called the Space Launch System (SLS). They state that the SLS program is making solid progress on the SLS design. However, they conclude that NASA has not developed an executable business case based on matching the program's cost and schedule resources with the requirement to develop the vehicle and conduct the first flight test in December 2017 at the required confidence level of 70 percent.
NASA Report on Potential Future Public-Private Partnerships
NASA examines eight different areas in space exploration and their potential for additional public-private partnership in the future. It uses an economic model to do so. It examines efforts in partnership that could both meet NASA's mission objectives as well as provide national economic benefit.