Author Topic: Little hope  (Read 3055 times)

ssjfb

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Little hope
« on: October 23, 2009, 06:25:45 PM »
From www.nasa.gov today :

The final report of the Review of US Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, better known as the Augustine Commission, has been published today. It considers the possibility of Shuttle Extension through 2015, but the last word will be the one of President Obama.

Complete report here :

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/396093main_HSF_Cmte_FinalReport.pdf

MDBenson

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Re: Little hope
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2009, 04:20:39 AM »
You have 2 essential factors that will need balancing up here:

1. The airframes of the 3 shuttles are getting old, and will need a lot of attention and inspection to ensure safe flights for a further 5 years. I believe all 3 existing airframes are out of certification when they finish the currently planned mission run (likely to end 2011). That means all will need a complete refurbishment to be flight-worthy beyond that. Discovery, being the oldest airframe will likely be retired and vital parts used to maintain Atlantis and Endeavour. The proposal also I think suggests shutting down to 1-3 launches a year. This infrequent use means even more safety issues.

2. The US really need to keep sending people into space and maintain it's launch capability, and ability to send it's astronauts to the international Space Station.

Take a view where you like, but like ssjfb says the last word lies with President Obama.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2009, 04:23:29 AM by MDBenson »

Moonwalker

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Re: Little hope
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2009, 07:23:30 AM »
Well, Parker Griffith (a member of the United States House of Representatives) says it all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjRR4md8Iq0

/signed

Anything else would be a fatal direction for NASA (and the USA). There is no choice: the congress needs to give NASA the GO and full support for the beautiful Ares launchers and the Constellation program. And I think that this will happen, even more once Ares-1X becomes a great demonstration on Tuesday...
« Last Edit: October 26, 2009, 07:29:46 AM by Moonwalker »