nmp wrote:
Wrong. Noone has said that the shuttle that (apparently) is going to be
built by Europe and the Russians is in fact a *replacement* for the
American shuttle, AKA the STS.

Yes, one comment was made in this newsgroup (sci.space.shuttle) to the
effect that it would replace the shuttle.

If they had said "it would be A shuttle", it would be fine. But
replacing THE shuttle isn't. Because there is only one shuttle right
now, replacing THE shuttle means replacing that Shuttle vehicle operated
by NASA.

People need to understand the CEV and Klipper will not fill all the
functionality/capabilities that will be lost when NASA grounds its shuttles.

The russians do have a space tug capable of bringing some types of cargo
to the station. Europe will have ATV which will be able to dock to the
russian ports on the station. Japan may have HTV which will be able to
approach the station and let the station's arm grab it and then berth
it. But the USA will have nothing of that capability once shuttle
retires, unless it starts working on it now.

ATV will be restricted by the small hatch sizes on the russian segment.
HTV will not be able to return gear to the ground. (neither ATV or Progress).

Klipper will have very limited cargo capacity (but vast improvement over Soyuz).

You can criticise the Shuttle all you want. It may be expensive, it may
have problems with its tiles/foam. But as a vehicle, it is extremely
capable in space.


A bit like a penguin. Walks funny and slow and very vulnerable on
ground, but once in water, is a great sleek animal that goes very fast.
Once in space, the shuttle has capabilities that are unmatched, but on
the atmosphere/ground, it is quite vulnerable and handles like a brick.


The shuttle isn't a ferrari. It is a huge dump truck. Designed to do
work in space.

The Shuttle also manages to do with one launch what will require 2
launches when it is retired: launch the cargo in one rocket, then launch
the crew to perform assembly of that cargo.

Without the shuttle, the space station concept becomes even more
important. By having permanent presence in space, when you want to
assemble the mars ship, some unmanned cargo launchers may lauch modules
up and then you can use the space station crews to connect everything
together and complete the assembly of that module. Otherwise, you need
2 launches, one for cargo and one for workers to complete assembly.