At last count, 14 Senators had written or signed letters to the White House and/or NASA about NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket for exploration beyond low earth orbit. Ten of them are Republicans – a statistic not sitting well with the Tea Party in Space (TPIS). But why is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on board? The answer is surprisingly small.

Senate correspondence around SLS breaks down into five major groups:  Details Now, Booster Competition, Western Solids Alliance, Southern States, and Announce Now. Each group has its own reasons to put in their two cents for SLS and some groups conflict.

Details Now: The longest running group is made up of the two senior lawmakers on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation which oversees NASA – Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) and ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX).   The two started requesting documents and a formal announcement on SLS in the spring and by July 27 had issued a subpoena to NASA to force handover of information used in the SLS decision-making process.

Booster Competition: California Senators Dianne Feinstein (D) and Barbara Boxer (D) sent a letter to NASA on May 27 calling for a competitive bid process for the SLS strap-on boosters, a move supported by TPIS and encouraged by rocket engine manufacturer Aerojet. Since then, Aerojet has shored up its support with Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) by promising to open up a factory in Alabama with Teledyne Brown to build rocket engines which could go into SLS liquid-fueled boosters.

Western Solids Alliance: TPIS got a hold of a letter allegedly authored by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and signed by Mike Crapo (R-ID), James E. Risch (R-ID), Dean Heller (R-NV), and Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-NV). The letter asserts that the “legal requirements” for SLS can only be met by solid rocket motors – which are manufactured by ATK (News - Alert) in Utah – and the Senators will oppose any government funding for liquid boosters.

Senator Reid is involved because of American Pacific Corp, which produces ammonium perchlorate used for rocket fuel, is headquartered in Las Vegas, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. ATK would buy a lot of ammonium perchlorate from American Pacific, which employs 80 Nevada citizens.

Southern States: The White House received a letter on August 15 from Senators Richard Shelby, Jeff Sessions (R-AL), David Vitter (R-LA), Thad Cochran (R-MS), and Roger Wicker (R-MS), calling for the immediate release of a report detailing the SLS design and for the project to move forward immediately.

Announce Now:  Senator Hutchinson has issued two statements in the past week calling for SLS plans to be announced immediately, the second joined by Shelby. On August 19, Hutchinson called for the immediate announcement of the SLS rocket design to avoid more job layoffs associated with the shutdown of the space shuttle program. This time around, she wasn't joined by Chairman Rockefeller.

On August 24, Shelby joined Hutchinson in another statement calling for the immediate announcement of SLS by NASA in light of a failed Russian Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS), the rationale being that SLS could be a back-up system to delivering cargo to ISS.

Since SLS won't fly a test mission until 2018 at the earliest and is designed to put between 70 to 130 tons of cargo into orbit – as opposed to 3 tons with a Russian Progress flight,  space pundits across the Internet are unimpressed by the logic involved.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.