NASA: Space station may be evacuated by late Nov.

AP via Yahoo! News ^ | 29 August 2011 | Marcia Dunn

[magellan]

NASA says astronauts may need to abandon the International Space Station this fall.

If Russian Soyuz rockets remain grounded beyond mid-November, there will be no way to launch new crews before the current residents are supposed to leave.

A Russian supply ship was destroyed during liftoff last week. The rocket is similar to what's used to launch astronauts.

NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini said Monday that flight controllers could keep a deserted space station operating indefinitely.

[magellan]

Unbelievable. This is what happens when you shut down the Space Shuttle program, cancel the Orion/Ares crew vehicle, and put all of your eggs into the Russian Soyuz basket.

Fire Charles Bolden now!

[roaddog727]

Exactly.

Thanks, Zero.

[Reagan Man]

>>>>>Fire Charles Bolden now!

Just fire Obama.

[neodad]

Can’t we sell it to the Chinese or something? Recoup some of the billions?

[Errant]

Hmmmm, sounds like more meat for the conspiracy theorists...

[neodad]

ping...

[chimera]

Real smart. All those years building the thing, billions spent, lives lost, and now they’re going to abandon it? Really, really smart planning there, geniuses.

[Spaghetti Man]

NASA used to be bold and innovative, now its just another politicized government agency. If this proves to be accurate they should halt the moth-balling now if for no other reason other than to have a method of getting the residents of ISS safely home.

[evets]

[John W]

Amen. These decisions are his.

[GonzoGOP]

Can’t we sell it to the Chinese or something? Recoup some of the billions?

We don't own all of it. But I actually wouldn't be adverse to selling our interest to China. The ISS is a dead end in space and if we can get any of our money back out of the project I would take it. We can't get there so there is no advantage to keeping it. So we may as well get anything back that we can.

[Mr. K]

But at least NASA has a great new mission of Muslim Outreach (thanks to Barack HUSSEIN Obama)

[SolidRedState]

So how do they get down? Jump? If the rockets are grounded. Do they have a craft docked to the station they can come home in?

[SoJoCo]

The shuttle was planned for shut down during the Bush administration. And the Orion/Aries manned missions were, at best, 5 years away. More likely 8 to 10 years given NASA's track record. So what was Bolden supposed to do about it?

We're at the point now where private industry should be picking up the slack in the space program. They can do the job quicker and more cost effectively than NASA can. Government should limit itself to doing whatever it can to encourage private industry.

[PilotDave]

Gee, that didn’t take long.

[Quix]

There’s plenty of blame to shove . . .

anyway . . .

However . . . I don’t for a microsecond

believe that things are as the MSM are painting them.

Lots of things are not as they seem.

The critical issues probably have NOTHING to do with what’s ascribed as the causes.

[DTogo]

Didn't Obama promote himself as the "science" presidential candidate?

FAIL

[John W]

Don’t you mean what was Obama supposed to do about it? That’s who you’re actually defending here, correct?

[ClearCase_guy]

“There are thirty-two ways to write a story, and I’ve used every one, but there is only one plot — things are not as they seem.” — Jim Thompson

[5thGenTexan]

They have a Soyuz capsule at the ISS as an emergency lifeboat.