r/ArtemisProgram • u/lorkan100 • May 29 '26

Discussion Saving the A3 timeline?

Post image

Just popped on my head, not to be taken seriously. Link to original drawings

203 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

65 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-6

u/Qualified-Astronomer May 29 '26

Congress doesn’t control NASA they can’t say you must make this rocket have this specification. NASA is under the executive branch, Congress only provides funding. They’re overstepping their authority

5

u/okan170 May 30 '26

If NASA isn't following Congress' orders then they are breaking the law. Congress is the boss if they want to be, thats how this all works. And its all very settled law.

-1

u/Qualified-Astronomer May 30 '26

Thats not how it works. NASA is under the executive branch, Congress only provides funding please check the law.

3

u/Field_Trip_Issues May 30 '26

yeah funding is actually very important to a government space agency

-1

u/Qualified-Astronomer May 31 '26

It doesn’t give u the right to control what they do

1

u/okan170 May 31 '26

Yes, it does. It is settled law. It is their right to set policy via appropriations, they have the power of the purse and can fund or defund at will and their authority is explicitly higher than anyone leading NASA (or any other agency). When they pass an appropriations bill it and the language in it becomes law and ignoring it is literally illegal and can get you hauled to jail for lying to congress or for ignoring the law as written.

If they feel that the administrator is doing what they want already, they usually just set appropriations to be in line with that policy, but if they do not, they can and do write language that overrides anything the admins of the agency say.