Time To Phase Out Shuttle

www.floridatoday.com ^ | June 20, 2003 | Florida Today

[jehosophat]

For more than two decades, people from around the world have lined the shores near Kennedy Space Center to watch humans fly into orbit aboard NASA's space shuttles. It's a sight that never fails to take the breath away.

Going from a standstill to 17,400 mph in slightly more than eight minutes, the ships have a remarkable record of achievement, from rescuing stranded satellites to fixing the Hubble Space Telescope to building the International Space Station.

[Paul Ross]

Minimalist approach ping. I favor D All the above and then some. We also do need an ALL NEW shuttle DESIGNED right. Titanium fuselage to drastically cut weight, and increase strength and heat resistance in the eventual failure of the Thermal Protection System. Utilize the weight savings to make for a redesigned nose section to be an escape capsule which might give the crew a real chance of survival. As for the smaller reusable 'ferry' although a capsule is a good 'down and dirty' quick fix on the cheap, The winged approach, Jerry Pournelle notwithstanding, is ALSO worth pursuing...especially for defense needs. I would proceed on a multi-track basis. Either we are serious about preserving a dominant position in space travel...or we will lose it due to budgetary myopia and political spinelessnes. The Chinese are serious about supplanting us.

[LibKill]

The shuttle has served well, and well beyond its time.

Unleash the engineers! Get some bright young engineers who don't know the meaning of "it can't be done".

[jehosophat]

Let's return the space shuttle orbitals to the air and space museum in Washington, D.C. where they belong! and return with strong leadership in outer space!

[Quix]

I felt it was GROSSLY OUT OF DATE when it first flew.

I still think it's been mostly an expensive charade.

[Atlas Sneezed]

But this would all require a government agency to admit that their strategy for the past few decades was WRONG.

[Normal4me]

I agree, however something that complex needed years to design and test. It was a program looking for a cause but it was also the least expensive way to enter space at the time. Even something designed today will be obsolete by the time it eventually flies.

[DoughtyOne]

Either we decide to do this, or we continue to flounder with regard to our future in space.

SSTO is worthy of a Manhattan level national project. If we don't care to persue SSTO, let's just be honest with ourselves, turn the lights out at NASA and relinquish our underfunded, unimaginative national pipe dream.

We had a thirty year jump on other nations. We are within a few years of other nations launching their own 1970s vintage shuttle programs. Do we really want to settle for a glorified shuttle system to see us through the next forty years, or do we wish to once again lift our eyes toward heaven, this time leapfroging the technological barriers that keep us from inhabiting space routinely, permanently?

Space will be conquered by some nation. Will it be us? Technological advances are not going to elude the rest of the world's nations forever. Either we open up space in a leadership position, or we settle to be also rans.

We are determining our space future for the next 50 years right now. Either we get that fact, or we go back to sleep while others gaze at the stars with real intent, not complacent day dreaming.

I get tired of reading articles talking about going back to the tried and true. Geez Louise, does talk of gemini capsules and u-haul space lifters really spark the imaginations of our space leaders? Actually, I'm convinced it does.

Nope, we need a number of new vehicles, but at least one of them needs to be a space ferry lifting cargo into space for dollars per pound. We'll NEVER achieve that with mere rocket lifters and dropped cargo space destined vehicles.

It's 35 years past time when we should have been designing our shuttle replacement.

We could fly x15s into space 40 years ago, but today we can't fly there because the technology doesn't exist. What's wrong with this picture? Where's the next step boys? Your last one was a long long time ago, in a productive glactic imagination, far far away.

Whiz or get off the pot!

[skinkinthegrass]

But this would all require a government agency to admit that their strategy for the past few decades was WRONG.

Hey, Burt Rutan, Has SpaceshipOne and White Knight rev-up on the tarmac...Lets give Him a couple of flights...

[RightWhale]

That has put NASA -- and the nation's human spaceflight program -- at a crossroads in this still new century

A crossroads is a great place to stop and take a good look around, maybe even change direction.

[bicycle thug]

The Enterprise which was non orbitting test vehicle is already at the Smithsonian. I don't think they have the budget and storage for three more OVs.

We still need these vehicles that were projected to each fly approximately one hundred missions. But I agree the craft is cetainly no longer 'state of the art.' But thank to many myopic budget cuts over the years that would have given us the access to space we need to develop that frontier.

another Enterprise link
and another

[Brett66]

NASA should get out of the space transportation business altogether. We never needed a "national" airplane operated solely by the government so why do we need a "national" space launch system? Open it up to private enterprise, let them provide the launch services with no control from NASA (no United Space Alliance). Give the Rutans, the Jeff Bezos and the Elon Musks a chance at delivering a non-government way to get into space. They'll do it faster, more economical and more reliably than NASA ever could. We'll see these private efforts at space access start to really take hold in the next ten years and NASA doesn't have to do anything, just purchase the services of several of these companies when they become available.

[KevinDavis]

Also I think that we should have continued the X-15 project (the earlier version of the space plane) route. From what I understand the X-15 we near the edge of space. Too bad we stopped it and gone with the Shuttle route.

[jehosophat]

I agree that space has not adequately been a national priority, in fact under President Carter the Space Budget was practically devastated. Yet, the shuttle was unrealistically oversold from the beginning! The origina proposal was for 40 flights a year. This is insanity for an outrageously expensive and dangerous system. Let's return to sanity and keep it simple when we effectively continue our space program where we left it around 1970.

[jehosophat]

You hit the nail on the head. Let's give free enterprise a chance!

[RightWhale]

space has not adequately been a national priority

It hasn't been a priority and one wonders why not. It seems at odds with development of an advanced industrial society to not have a vigorous space program--until you realize that it can't be automated. Space development so far is labor-intensive and is not compatable with any other modern industry, including the defense industry. The space program is nothing but research and development and will remain so until the decision is made to develop outer space for its unlimited natural resources. The gov't, due to its nature and mission, will not lead the way. It's up to industry to create this economic sector.

[KevinDavis]

I happen to agree with you 100%

[KevinDavis]

If we continue to ignore space, China will go to space and be number 1 in space.

[bicycle thug]

I've never seen any aircraft, or other high speed, low drag vehicle not be oversold when the appropriations game is played in D.C. Why just pick on the shuttle?

Many complex A/C don't become effective long after deployment, and undergo updates on equipment and gear on them as well as see some other stuff go outdated at the same time. I'm sure you could expound this into another index of Murphey's Law axioms about expensive flying contraptions. So I consider this a reality that is a non issue, with all due respect.

Nah, the eary disposible space craft era was glorious, but the core concept of reuse that the shuttle promoted is the right way to go.

[jehosophat]

>The gov't, due to its nature and mission, will not lead the >way. It's up to industry to create this economic sector.

Ping!