Senator Proposes Bill to Extend Space Shuttle Program

http://bit.ly/aHqQvZ

Any more info on this??

Well, I don't know but we have been here before.

Maybe we should sell them to the Japanese and let them fly them till they
fall to bits.



Having said all of that though, will anyone ever think about making their
own craft if you keep on using the Shuttle.
I think as a learning device its taught a lot of people a lot, and not just
about spaceflight either.

I think that maybe, in the future something siilar could be built but its
that old joke. Knowing what we know now, we would not start from here.

Brian

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"André, PE1PQX" wrote in message
...
http://bit.ly/aHqQvZ

Any more info on this??

On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:04:55 +0100, André, PE1PQX
wrote:

http://bit.ly/aHqQvZ

Any more info on this??

Well, that article was from a week ago. Since then, Congresspersons
Kosmas and Posey have filed a similar bill in the House. Now the fun
begins of trying to get both houses to support the bill. There is some
indication they will, but the big question will be how to pay for it.
A major boost to NASA's budget seems highly unlikely.

The Constellation program had fairly broad bipartisan support, and the
President's wholesale sacking of the program has not found much
support in any quarter (even pro-commercial, Burt "NASA sucks" Rutan
railed against it.)

The political (re)action has caught the attention of President Obama,
who will be going to the Cape next month to talk about his new space
policy, trying to smooth ruffled feathers. Whether he will offer a
true compromise of his own or just throw a bone to the 23,000 people
there who are about to lose their jobs is not yet known.

Brian

Its very difficult. One has to realise that nothing lasts forever, but one
of the things Government ought to be able to do is to soften the landing.
Unfortunately, the economic realities of where the world finds itself could
not have been envisaged when the Shrub made the original decision, which
was I guess in part a kind of cushion of a kind. Now as has been said, in a
time when money is tight, you have the dual problem of unemployment
generally, falling tax revenues and demands from people not to make things
worse by creating yet more job losses.

We also must not forget that the Shuttle system is now old, and unless you
are going to do a new build or a big upgrade of some kind, you are dicing
with peoples lives.
Now many would say the people will still queue up to fly on it, but the
point is that will anything ever move on if it is seen that Shuttle is
eating the money.
The Shuttle is great at cargo up/down and taking lots of people to the
station and back, however its safety to crew during critical periods, like
lift off, is now seen as outdated and no amount of retrofitting will fix it
on the current system.

I'm not convinced that re entry is really any safer in a capsule myself, as
you still have nil escape possibilities during the critical phase of maximum
heating.

If something structural goes belly up on a capsule you still die.



This is the point at which the Shuttle cargo only autonomous folk lean out
of the window and point a lot, but then again, its expensive for that job
only.

You therefore have a straight decision to make.
do you commit to a new system, a refit of an old system, or a cobbled up
compromise to fly what you have as long as the eternally changing safety
issue says no, either through another accident or a new commercial
alternative comes along. After that, does Nasa simply become an unmanned
agency? An astronaut training facility?

Is there any point in having Nasa at all.

I'd certainly not want to be President just now..

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
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"Brian Thorn" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:04:55 +0100, André, PE1PQX
wrote:

http://bit.ly/aHqQvZ

Any more info on this??

Well, that article was from a week ago. Since then, Congresspersons
Kosmas and Posey have filed a similar bill in the House. Now the fun
begins of trying to get both houses to support the bill. There is some
indication they will, but the big question will be how to pay for it.
A major boost to NASA's budget seems highly unlikely.

The Constellation program had fairly broad bipartisan support, and the
President's wholesale sacking of the program has not found much
support in any quarter (even pro-commercial, Burt "NASA sucks" Rutan
railed against it.)

The political (re)action has caught the attention of President Obama,
who will be going to the Cape next month to talk about his new space
policy, trying to smooth ruffled feathers. Whether he will offer a
true compromise of his own or just throw a bone to the 23,000 people
there who are about to lose their jobs is not yet known.

Brian