Senator Kay Hutchison - in conjunction with Representatives Suzanne Kosmas and Bill Posey - has produced a 37 page Bill that proposes major refinements to NASA's FY2011 proposal, and NASA's forward plan. The Bill is centered around a shuttle extension to 2015, in support of fully utilizing the International Space Station (ISS), along with saving elements of Constellation - such as Orion and a Heavy Lift Launcher (HLV).

Shuttle Extension:

Efforts to reverse the 2010 retirement date of the shuttle fleet have been ongoing for a few years, without being realized - partly due to a lack of support from successive NASA administrators.

Former NASA boss Mike Griffin even worked directly against extension - mainly via protection of the Ares I launch vehicle's budget - often citing safety concerns which had no basis in post Return To Flight reality.

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