There have been manyu discussions, trial balloons etc about the future
of the shuttle. Would it fly only twice a year for MPLM and crew
exchanges, woudl it fly 6 times a year ? Would it go to Hubble, would it
complete the station, partial completion ?


The recent announcement that allows NASA to buy seats on Soyuz
certaintly does not eliminate speculation that the shuttle could be terminated.

With a crew of only 2, crew exchanges can easily be done as part of
assembly flights. So offloading crew exchanges to the russians doesn't
really reduce the number of flights needed. And cutting MPLM flights
greatly reduces what can be done. (unless the americans could also
purchase progress flights to compensate.

If the next shuttle cannot liftoff without shedding foam, I can see some
serious debate ensuing.


Could the shuttle truly be cancelled before its next flight in may 2006
? Or is it a pretty safe bet that this flight will go through ?