Griffin: 2011 Earliest for New Spaceship (if additional funding for NASA is provided)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/25/06 | Suzanne Gamboa - ap

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON - A new spaceship could be ready to replace the nation's aging shuttle fleet by 2011 — three years ahead of schedule — if lawmakers added money to NASA's proposed budget, the head of the space agency told a congressional panel on Tuesday.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said that date is the earliest the new spaceship, or crew exploration vehicle, could be developed no matter how much money the agency received.

Currently, the target date for building a new vehicle is 2014.

With his pitch to Congress, Griffin underscored a point he has made previously about completing the spaceship on a faster time frame.

Pressed by Sen. Bill Nelson (news, bio, voting record), D-Fla., Griffin acknowledged an additional $1 billion could accelerate the program's completion.

The shuttle is to be retired in 2010, and lawmakers are concerned about when a replacement will be ready.

"If money were not an issue — going back to Apollo kinds of days — then I think it would be no technical problem to have an operational system available in five to six years," Griffin said after testifying before a subcommittee that oversees NASA spending.

President Bush's budget calls for a 3.2 percent increase in NASA spending over last year. The House and Senate have authorized an additional $1.1 billion, but that is only a guide. The money must be appropriated by both chambers.

A Senate appropriations subcommittee was to scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider the proposed increase.

NASA will be shelving its three aging space shuttles in four years. The next generation of spaceships is supposed to carry astronauts to the moon by 2018 and eventually to Mars.

The so-called "flight gap" between the shuttles and their replacement could affect research and American space competitiveness, lawmakers said.

"We don't want a hiatus because we think that puts us in a security risk position," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas.

[annie laurie]

Ping

[KevinDavis]

[true_blue_texican]

add me to the ping list, please

[RightWhale]

that puts us in a security risk position," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison

There is an outspoken minority on FR who do not comprehend this.

[NonZeroSum]

There is an outspoken minority on FR who do not comprehend this.

Count me in on that "minority." How is a "gap" in our ability to send NASA astronauts into space a security risk? If it is, why haven't we been attacked (by the grays, or the Vogons, or whoever the risk comes from) during the past three-plus years, when we've only managed to muster up a single Shuttle flight?

[anymouse]

I think the only "security risk" involved here is job security at NASA JSC and that is what concerns JSC contractors, who pull KBH's strings to make her make such silly statements.

Of course it will really be embarrassing if the commercial guys manage to field an orbital manned vehicle prior to NASA's favorite contractors getting their CLV/CEV abomination off the drawing board. Especially when they do it for far less than NASA is asking to merely speed up their program.

[SunkenCiv]

Good call. :')

[RightWhale]

Count me in on that "minority."

Done