Neil Armstrong’s quote upon stepping out onto the lunar surface in 1969 had the entire planet captivated with a glimpse of another world on their television screens. At the time, NASA was widely held as a collection of some of the smartest people on the planet, capable of performing miracles of impossibility…
Since the very first shuttle flight, when two American astronauts flew Columbia on her maiden flight in 1981, orbiting the planet and returning to earth in a space vehicle which launched like a rocket, and returned to earth landing like a plane, people were amazed at the unique ingenuity of the space workforce at NASA. Each ship cost about 2 billion dollars, handling a crew of seven instead of three like the previous Apollo capsules. The three original shuttles cost in excess of $500 million to launch, and when Challenger was lost in 1986, Atlantis and Endeavour where eventually added to the fleet, built from spare airframes, but no less expensive. The fleet went through various upgrades through the years, including the installation of advanced cockpit electronics in each ship.
Many nations now embarked on the ambitious International Space Station, or ISS, with the first piece launched in 1998 by Russia, followed by construction missions by each Space shuttle, continually expanding the orbital laboratory until the loss of Columbia upon re-entry in 2003. The shuttle fleet was again grounded, while investigations, and new safety procedures were introduced. Even by the time the remainder of the shuttles returned to duty, it had been decided that the unique space vehicles would be retired after the completion of ISS construction…
The Bush Administration laid out a new direction for NASA soon after, pointing the way for a return to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The plan was to construct Apollo era capsules, called Orion, launched atop new rockets to be built and tested by NASA, with a goal for manned orbital missions somewhere around 2015, five years after the planned retirement of the shuttle fleet. Billions have been spent on this ‘Constellation’ project since it came off the drawing board.
Fast forward now to present…. Space Shuttle Endeavour is delivering what should be the last main piece of the ISS, called node 3, or ‘Tranquility’ as the module has been dubbed. The fleet is still to be retired after three more flights this year, and one shuttle will be donated to the Smithsonian. NASA has dropped the garage sale price of the two remaining shuttles from $48 million to $28 million.
Enter Barack Obama…. The constellation project, which was a step backward for human spaceflight already, has been cancelled. Now, thousands of space workers at Cape Canaveral will be out of work, with no new vehicle to replace the aging shuttles, and no new direction for the agency. The funds from NASA’s budject will now go into extending the mission of the ISS, until at least 2020, and supposedly increase robotic missions elsewhere…
Now the United States will give up their proud flagship Space Transportation System, and resort to hitching rides back and forth from the ISS aboard Russian Soyuz rockets? NASA has suddenly found themselves in last place behind Russia and China, as far as access to space, while the administration attempts to pimp out space workers at Kennedy to private firms that they have contracts with, such as SpaceX and others. Gone are the days of proud American firsts in space, without the beloved shuttles.
A few ideas to close: In the earlier planning of ISS, billions were spent on the CRV, or Crew Rescue Vehicle. A small ‘lifeboat’ to ferry astronauts back to Earth in the event of an emergency. Despite the cost of launches, I believe the shuttles could serve this purpose nicely, after a bit of refitting. There are several docking ports on the station; the shuttles could be docked there indefinitely, serving as lifeboats, with the ability to raise the station’s orbital altitude, and even store additional suplies in their cargo bays. To me, at the very least, they deserve to end their missions where they belong……In space.
