Boxy
07-22-2009, 07:09 AM
http://www.space.com/news/081104-nasa-shuttle-retirement-cbo.html
"WASHINGTON - The addition of an extra mission to NASA's space shuttle flight manifest could significantly reduce the chance of retiring the orbiter fleet in 2010 as planned, possibly to as low as 5 percent, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in a report released Monday."
As you may or may not know, NASA's fleet of Space Shuttles is being replaced by the old-style single-use rockets with capsule-style Crew Exploration Vehicles (CEV). The Space Shuttle was originally designed with the intention of landing and relaunching within a week, with the reuse making up for the more expensive cost-per-unit. However, engineering and safety concerns (such as having to completely rehaul the engine after each use) meant that the proposed savings never surfaced. The intention was to lower the cost of hauling cargo and passengers into orbit to further development in space, but ended up being just as expensive -- if not slightly more -- than conventional, single-use rockets and capsules.
To rectify some of these problems, NASA is reverting to single-use rockets, as the Russians have been using for lo these past thirty years. In fact, commercial rocket manufacturers such as Lockheed-Martin and SpaceX have taken older Atlas rockets as the template for a new generation of space vehicles. NASA in turn is engineering a new class of rockets, dubbed Ares, to carry its new Orion-class CEVs. However, they won't be ready until at least 2012, and estimates from the Congressional Budget Office indicate that they won't be ready until Fall 2013.
Until then, NASA still has to deal with its responsibilities of resupplying the International Space Station, transporting crew, and so on and so forth. It's a tempting prospect to simply drag out the Space Shuttle's retirement until Orion and Ares are ready, but such an action would delay further development in commercial rockets. Cargo duty for the ISS has already been sub-contracted to SpaceX with their Falcon 9 rockets, and one wonders whether it would be healthy to deny the public sector such a prestigious job.
It's high time for NASA to surrender some of its duties to the newly-developed private space industry. Ever since NASA surrendered satellite-launching duties after the Challenger disaster, the orbital infrastructure has been steadily added-to with communications satellites and GPS by private industries.
What think you, gentle Earthlings?
"WASHINGTON - The addition of an extra mission to NASA's space shuttle flight manifest could significantly reduce the chance of retiring the orbiter fleet in 2010 as planned, possibly to as low as 5 percent, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in a report released Monday."
As you may or may not know, NASA's fleet of Space Shuttles is being replaced by the old-style single-use rockets with capsule-style Crew Exploration Vehicles (CEV). The Space Shuttle was originally designed with the intention of landing and relaunching within a week, with the reuse making up for the more expensive cost-per-unit. However, engineering and safety concerns (such as having to completely rehaul the engine after each use) meant that the proposed savings never surfaced. The intention was to lower the cost of hauling cargo and passengers into orbit to further development in space, but ended up being just as expensive -- if not slightly more -- than conventional, single-use rockets and capsules.
To rectify some of these problems, NASA is reverting to single-use rockets, as the Russians have been using for lo these past thirty years. In fact, commercial rocket manufacturers such as Lockheed-Martin and SpaceX have taken older Atlas rockets as the template for a new generation of space vehicles. NASA in turn is engineering a new class of rockets, dubbed Ares, to carry its new Orion-class CEVs. However, they won't be ready until at least 2012, and estimates from the Congressional Budget Office indicate that they won't be ready until Fall 2013.
Until then, NASA still has to deal with its responsibilities of resupplying the International Space Station, transporting crew, and so on and so forth. It's a tempting prospect to simply drag out the Space Shuttle's retirement until Orion and Ares are ready, but such an action would delay further development in commercial rockets. Cargo duty for the ISS has already been sub-contracted to SpaceX with their Falcon 9 rockets, and one wonders whether it would be healthy to deny the public sector such a prestigious job.
It's high time for NASA to surrender some of its duties to the newly-developed private space industry. Ever since NASA surrendered satellite-launching duties after the Challenger disaster, the orbital infrastructure has been steadily added-to with communications satellites and GPS by private industries.
What think you, gentle Earthlings?