Posted 03.04.2010 at 6:35 pm
6 Comments
Blast Off, Cash Off?
courtesy of NASA
In an attempt to shorten the gap between the end of the Space Shuttle and the deployment of its replacement, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has introduced a bill that would extend the life of the Shuttle by two years. The bill directly contradicts the White House's space policy, which favors a rapid decommissioning of the Shuttle, followed by an emphasis on the private sector to maintain support of the International Space Station (ISS).
The bill, called the Human Space Flight Capability Assurance and Enhancement Act, costs $1.3 billion more than Obama's $19 million plan, and also calls for any replacement vehicle to have the same cargo and crew capacity as the Shuttle.
Unfortunately, some feel that both proposals fail to understand some of the key realities in the US space program.
According to Scott Pace, Director of the Space Policy Institute, Hutchison's plan is actually impossible, as the industrial infrastructure for supporting the Shuttle beyond another year no longer exists. Additionally, requesting Shuttle-sized cargo and crew capacity for the replacement vehicle, as the bill does, actually hampers the return of human space flight, since no agency or company is interested in producing another spacecraft so large.
However, Pace also believes that the White House plan misses the mark, and that its emphasis on the private sector and technology development as a replacement for Shuttle service to the ISS bets the future of manned space flight on high risk ventures.
Said Pace, "I think people of good will are trying to find a way forward, but there aren't a lot of good options."
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Unfortunately, this is just a bill so Senator Hutchison can say she tried and show support from some of her Houston backers. This bill, if made law, simply would not work and would be bad for everyone. It is a waste of our lawmakers' time.
The idea to extend the Shuttles' useful life seems good on the surface. I think it would be fine to re-thing the "absolute 2010" cutoff on the program and maybe get a few more flights out of the program. Contrary to how it is often portrayed, the Shuttle program is not on some kind of timer where it could fly 12/31/2010 and suddenly can't fly on 1/1/2011. However, the infrastructure has already been substantially decomissioned and it would be a very poor use of funds to try and start it up again and keep flying for years....
Trying to legislate the capacity of a replacement system to be equal to Shuttle is just a marker that demonstrates this bill is a political stunt. Varied capacity, as would be provided by the various proposed commercial solutions is more useful to NASA, DOD and industry and will be more cost effective.
It would be great to end up with a very heavy lifter, but we might actually achieve more perfecting docking smaller components in orbit.
Frankly I am surprised that some Florida Senator(s) aren't co-authors....I agree completely that this is nothing more than political posturing for local constituents....
Florida probably listen to real space people better than the attention deficit disorder state of texas.
I do hope there are plans to have at least one of the shuttles permanently docked at the space station.
This would at least provide an emergency transportation vehicle for the crew. Also it could act as another module with a robotic arm. There is no sense in having them all sit in museums.
Perhaps this would be a better bill for the Senator.
Hutchinson is just angry because she just lost the primaries for governor.
And animemaster, you are an asshole.