Go Somewhere!

4. Build a next-gen space shuttle


The space shuttle has been flying for more than two decades and the risks of another Challenger-type accident are mounting, but there's no viable replacement on the horizon. NASA's leading candidate, the X-33, was canceled last year after five years of work and a $1.25 billion investment. Unlike the current space shuttle-which is propelled partway into orbit by detachable rocket boosters and makes the second leg of the journey on its own engine power-the X-33 was a prototype for a vehicle, VentureStar, that was supposed to hurtle from the ground to orbit in a single bound. But the necessary technology proved too ambitious.


The solution, according to Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, is to stick with the two-stage launch system but improve on it incrementally. The agency could start by creating more advanced boosters, and only later-when technology and funds allow-develop state-of-the-art vehicles for them to propel.


NASA could stretch its budget for the new shuttle by collaborating with the Pentagon. Rockets are rockets, regardless of whether they're launching a spy satellite or a telescope-the Hubble Space Telescope is basically a Keyhole spy satellite pointed at the sky instead of the ground. Given that Administrator O'Keefe has served as Secretary of the Navy, on Dick Cheney's Pentagon management team (during George Bush Sr.'s administration), and on the staff of the Senate's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, he should know how best to take advantage of the Pentagon's expertise.