YM COLUMN ARCHIVE

September 3, 2008

NASA to significantly extend the use of shuttle?

At the end of August, what was expected in some circle made the news. The news said that Michael Griffin, NASA Administrator, instructed the relevant departments of NASA to study what could be done to extend the use of shuttle over its scheduled retirement year of 2010. This was the report to have pulled a scoop on an internal e-mail of NASA by Orlando Sentinel Newspaper in Florida where Kennedy Space Center is located.

The official announcement so far was that the United States would resume new space transportation system called “Constellation Program” to be started in 2015 by using Ares rocket and Orion spacecraft after 2010 when space shuttle was scheduled to be retired right after the completion of International Space Station (ISS). For a blank period of five years, the US has no alternative means but to rely on Russian Soyuz for crew transportation to the ISS.

However, the recent international situation to have brought conflicts between the US and Russia rose the voice in congress, “Is this all right?” and in corresponding to this situation Obama campaign suggested the extension of space shuttle service, while Senator MacCain recently requested White House to prolong disposal of the shuttle’s parts at least for a year.

Manager of Manifest and Schedules of Johnson Space Center in Houston made a comment on a scoop article of Orlando Sentinel about the internal e-mail that there is proposed, in fact, an opinion to make only one shuttle retired out of the total three, and he added his own words, “we are very happy with the instruction to study the matter regardless of the cost”.

To my best memory, however, the very “cost” was the major reason Administrator Griffin once flatly rejected the extensional service of the shuttle. I had information that there was no room for spending money for shuttle extension to expedite the development of Constellation Program and that Administrator Griffin once said four billion dollars a year in budget is needed to keep flying shuttle after 2010.

And also from realistic point of view, NASA has already disposed the parts of shuttle system and is gradually canceling the contracts with manufacturers for production of the parts. Considering the fact that NASA’s various facilities, too, are being switched to corresponding to the new system of Constellation, I have a premonition that this may cause a significant confusion. This is not only the matter of shuttle but involves significant problem to influence “Space Exploration Strategy” in perspective of future advancing to Moon and Mars.

I welcome your opinions on this column to the following E-mail address.
matogawa@planetary.or.jp