Unlimited Horizons

NASA has been criticized in recent years for lacking a vision for human spaceflight. The NSBE Space SIG considers this to be a less than accurate assessment. There is no lack of vision for human spaceflight. Instead, there are multiple, conflicting visions for human spaceflight. These competing visions emerge from various stakeholders both inside and outside the federal government and have contributed to a state of conflict for the human spaceflight community in the present decade. This conflict is sufficiently entrenched that it is not clear that there is sufficient buy-in across both the legislative and executive branches to implement any human space flight architecture. It is already apparent that NASA's institutional technical capability has been adversely impacted by instability within the human spaceflight industry and there appears to be a loss of confidence in NASA's ability to implement high profile spacecraft acquisition programs. There are even fears that go so far as to suggest that if we do not preserve a foot-hold in human space flight right now we may risk permanent loss of United States capability. The charter of the NSBE Visions for Human Spaceflight Working Group is as follows: To provide a high level technical assessment of a human spaceflight strategy that reconciles competing interests and priorities facing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.