Panel Recommends Life Extension for Space Station

But at what cost to further space exploration?

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 07.29.2009 at 11:20 am 7 Comments

International Space Station Above The Earth NASA

NASA should extend space station operations beyond the planned 2016 retirement, according to a subcommittee of the presidential panel reviewing the human space program's future. But some members also warned that such a step could delay the return of astronauts to the moon.

This comes shortly after NASA had announced plans to de-orbit the International Space Station in 2016. Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada all support extending the $100-billion collaborative venture beyond 2015.

The subcommittee also suggested adding an eighth shuttle flight to keep the space station humming and fill the gap between shuttle retirement and the launch of the next-generation U.S. spacecraft.

Reuters reports that any such plan requires an additional $1.5 billion for the last seven shuttle missions, and another $2.7 billion just for the proposed eighth flight.

A planned shuttle retirement for 2010 will almost certainly fall through at the current rate of shuttle missions, and so the subcommittee also recommended pushing it back to March 2011.

Another option on the table involves flying the shuttle through 2014 as an alternative plan that involves developing a new launch system with existing shuttle rocket parts. That would mean canceling NASA's Ares rocket testing, which has already undergone delays.

Either way, the New York Times quoted a panel member's warning that continuing the space shuttle and space station operations means a delay in plans for astronauts to walk on the moon once more.

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7 Comments

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pheonix1012

07/29/09 at 12:56 pm

While I would not like to see them go away, if it's necessary to get to the next step, then I say NASA should let the Shuttle and ISS go.

However, from what I recently learned about the creation of the ISS was it's original intention to be used as an orbital weigh station would support the orbital construction of an inplanetary spacecraft which would be used to get us to the Moon and to Mars.

In this capacity we should keep ISS and take the orbital approach to interplanetary flight instead of trying to make a rocket blast off to the Moon or Mars from a launch pad on the surface with limited fuel.

BTW, the committee probably failed to admit that the reason why the expensive nature of Space Flight is cripling NASA's ability to monetarily support it's plans for the future is because it's budget keeps getting incrementally shrunk in terms of concrete monetary funding and GDP percentage (less than 1% of the U.S. GDP goes to NASA).

"Welcome! to the Federation Starship SS Buttcrack!!!"

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Kim - Talkingde...

07/29/09 at 1:56 pm

That is great news, all that effort and money to build the station, why not use it a little longer. Technology improvements and operational experience will be gained.

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podboq

07/29/09 at 4:02 pm

it seems like a huge stupid waste to me to de-orbit the station a mere, what, 5 years, after it will be completed. What was the point? We KNOW we can build stuff in orbit.... what was the point??

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seatellite

07/29/09 at 4:50 pm

Yeah they probably read all the comments under the announcment on this website. It seemed like there was an almost instant reaction to such a stupid plan to deorbit the ISS...

...I hate NASA...

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rwdisland

08/01/09 at 6:25 pm

What we need is an Earth Craft to orbit the earth. What ever stuff we can recycle off of that tinker-toy so called International Space Station would be used on the Earth Craft.
An yes given the right stuff we can build in space."podboq"
Then we wouldn't be loosing anything but gaining. If it can't be reused then the Earth Craft will recycle it. I have a few Ideas that would replace a lot of NASA's toys but I would have to get with NASA and a lot of other people to change all of this.

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sirknala

08/03/09 at 1:28 pm

It's not even completed yet and they are planning on killing it in 7 years? What a waste of money.

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quasi44

08/13/09 at 5:29 pm

Ahh, and there Was seen, common sense in the land of madness. I haven't been to the NASA site yet to see how it is holding up against Perseids, I do hope I'll find everyone OK. Seems like an idea might be to park old satellites on it for shielding and recyclable parts. At the current cost of boosting mass, it just doesn't make sense to Ever bring anything down. I would like to see a grappling Bot capable of recovering satellites,telescopes,and space junk, and bringing said material to ISS. The idea that lesser tasks should be performed by people is the way of the past. The time to begin a shift in the program towards the idea that our space based operations be as self sufficient and self promoting as possible is now.