Senators Make NASA Build a Useless $350 Million Spacepad, Just Because

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

That thing in the picture isn't an old granary of the side of I-95. It's a half-finished state-of-the-art test stand for a series of planned space rockets that the U.S. decided not to construct. But the stand is getting finished anyway. Enjoy it, America! You paid more than a third of a billion dollars for it.
The A-3 rocket test stand is "the first large test structure to be built at Stennis Space Center since the 1960s," according to NASA. That's a space center in Mississippi, a state where most people don't close their mouths when staring up into space. Stennis is named after an old Mississippi senator who brought the Deep South state an outsize portion of pork; his tradition is being carried on by the main movers of the A-3 tower—Republican Sens. Roger Wicker, a fiscal conservative who calls Medicaid financially "unsustainable," and Thad Cochran, who advocates deficit reduction by "structural changes to government spending."
The A-3 was intended to be used in the testing of a rocket engine for a Bush-era lunar exploration project. But that rocket's production was canceled, and there "are no rockets being developed for NASA that would need their engines tested under the high-altitude conditions for which the A-3 was built," according to Bloomberg. So as soon as the tower is finished, it will go on mothballs.
Why the hell finish a $350 million rocket stand that won't see any use? Because, Wicker says, we need to ensure that "the Stennis facility is prepared for ever-changing technologies and demands." Even if you don't need it now, you might need it in the future, so buy it now!
That reasoning isn't new, especially to contractor meal-ticket agencies like NASA and the military; back in 2011, one congressman blocked an Army plan to stop buying Humvees and use the money for defense of bases in Afghanistan, because he was concerned about "the cost that would be incurred should the Army decide to restart the Humvee program down the road."
This is why we can't have nice things, America: Because we need the money to pay for the useless things that we might need someday to build nice things in the future, assuming we can afford them.

Your tax dollars at work folks!

 

[Thundercrack85]

Maybe they could rent it out to China?

Or use it for space pad themed weddings?

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Turn it into one of those amusement park rides where everyone drops from a great height.

 

[Teelie]

Strap the senators on a rocket and send them off into space from it.

 

[Senator Pleasury]

Strap the senators on a rocket and send them off into space from it.

We, senators, do as we please. There's a delight in making this that you could never understand.

 

[Marvolo]

I see their logic. We may go back to the moon, and when we do we will probably use this thing. The cost of construction is only going to go up if we wait til later to build it and its already budgeted out. Im more concetned about costs to maintain it until we do find a reason to use it.

 

[Teelie]

That's not necessarily true as the main purpose (a particular rocket) was discontinued and it's no guarantee it will be the one used in future exploration.

 

[Slushy]

Who do we blame: Congress or The President?

 

[Senator Pleasury]

 

[KevanG]

Good catch SP.

They just need a better model to build it as.

 

[zeroapoc]

The author might have wanted to look into this more. The place will be used in the future by SpaceX.

 

[bullets]

This reminds me of the time I was mayor of SIM city. Some of those decisions.....wow.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The author might have wanted to look into this more. The place will be used in the future by SpaceX.

That's a relief to hear. At least someone will get some use out of it

 

[Teelie]

The author might have wanted to look into this more. The place will be used in the future by SpaceX.

So the journalist (lazily) made a claim this will be mothballed upon completion, only now it's not being mothballed but used for the SpaceX program?

It’s conceivable that such a rocket may be built in the future. Companies like Aerojet Rocketdyne and billionaire Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, may need to test engines for yet-to-be-developed rockets that would send astronauts into space, said Chris Quilty, an analyst with Raymond James and Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Seems that's a big "maybe" there.

Although the Bloomberg report (where the above quote came from) also cites;

Glenn Mahone, a spokesman for Aerojet Rocketdyne, said that while company officials know the A-3 test stand isn’t “a near-term priority, it likely will be required to support exploration objectives in the future.”

So there's this claim it will be used in the future...

That's two wildly different outcomes from the same article about the same thing. It's useless, or it's going to be useful.

 

[KevanG]

It might sort of maybe kinda be used sometime in the near, not so near or not at all possible future.