John Young: Fly Shuttle Beyond 2010

During the STS-1 25th anniversary event at KSC, former
astronaut and shuttle program manager John Young said that
the shuttle program should not be arbitrarily stopped in 2010,
but should be kept flying until ISS is complete, etc. He seemed
to be saying that it would be unlikely that NASA could complete
the planned 15 or so shuttle missions between now and 2010.

Since it seems likely that CEV is going to slip past the
planned 2012 start date, I think we will see more calls to keep
STS flying beyond 2010.

- Ed Kyle

Well, I don't want to say it, but I will anyway, I told you so.

There is no way that they will get the whole raft of business done safely
before the date of retirement. I just hope that no more mishaps occur. I do
think though, that the general public need to look back and also look
forward and see that space is never going to be what they would call safe.
I would expect things in the next generation, if there is one, of near earth
hardware can be built safer, but not safe!

What is safe anyway?

How do you define acceptable risk? If you join the armed forces, you
presumably weigh up how much risk there is of being killed or injured, and
people flying in space undoubtedly do the same.

People who race cars and who climb mountains have similar choices to make.

Brian

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Brian Gaff
"ed kyle" wrote in message
oups.com...
During the STS-1 25th anniversary event at KSC, former
astronaut and shuttle program manager John Young said that
the shuttle program should not be arbitrarily stopped in 2010,
but should be kept flying until ISS is complete, etc. He seemed
to be saying that it would be unlikely that NASA could complete
the planned 15 or so shuttle missions between now and 2010.

Since it seems likely that CEV is going to slip past the
planned 2012 start date, I think we will see more calls to keep
STS flying beyond 2010.

- Ed Kyle

"ed kyle" wrote in message
oups.com...
During the STS-1 25th anniversary event at KSC, former
astronaut and shuttle program manager John Young said that
the shuttle program should not be arbitrarily stopped in 2010,
but should be kept flying until ISS is complete, etc. He seemed
to be saying that it would be unlikely that NASA could complete
the planned 15 or so shuttle missions between now and 2010.


I think he's right.

I have serious doubts taht CEV will make it's date and CaLV will be even
later.

And a "rush" to stop getting the shuttle flying to me appears to make it
more likely that they'll really try to cram in the remaining flights before
2010, i.e. they're introducing additional pressure to keep up the flight
rate (especially since we've lost another year of flying) while trying to
keep the amount of money down.

I think at this point we'd be better off planning on the tear down
inspections and taking advantage of the additional time to fly as many
flights required to finish ISS and perform other operations until something
better (which I doubt at this point will be CEV) comes along. Ideally
something "better" would be commercial flights from outside of NASA.


Since it seems likely that CEV is going to slip past the
planned 2012 start date, I think we will see more calls to keep
STS flying beyond 2010.

- Ed Kyle

ed kyle wrote:

During the STS-1 25th anniversary event at KSC, former
astronaut and shuttle program manager John Young said that
the shuttle program should not be arbitrarily stopped in 2010,

Finally, someone with the guts to speak out.

Next, will be the issuance of statements to justify extending the
shuttle's lifetime because the original deadlines had been set with the
expectations that the shuttles would have been flying regularly since
2004. The extra years of stand down would make it much easier to add
those extra years to the original 2010 deadline.

And when you consider all the work that has been done during this
standdown to Atlantis, one could easily say that its life until the next
major maintenance period has been extended.

On 2006-04-08, ed kyle wrote:

During the STS-1 25th anniversary event at KSC, former
astronaut and shuttle program manager John Young said that
the shuttle program should not be arbitrarily stopped in 2010,
but should be kept flying until ISS is complete, etc. He seemed
to be saying that it would be unlikely that NASA could complete
the planned 15 or so shuttle missions between now and 2010.

(Havent seen this mentioned before, but its quite possibly I missed
it, I've been paying even less attention than usual, so apologies if
its a dupe)

I found this paragraph from the CollectSpace article rather
spooky/poignant esp considering it was Columbia:

JY: "I found out about 10 or so years ago, that we had buckled the
right main landing gear door, one of the gap fillers had come out,
and put hot gas into the wheel well, which could've been very bad
because if the wheel well had gotten too hot in there, you've got
those big tires in there and all three hydraulic systems, and that
would've finished us off. So, we were lucky... and we didn't know it
at the time.

Full article at http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-041006a.html


Iain

Hey another of my predictions comes true....

No way CEV will be ready by 2010

No way ISS will be anywhere near complete by then! Just look at the
current blistering flight rate!

NASA the organization wants to survive, the PUSH to fly is to be able
to say see we can do it please let us finish ISS.

Of course this ignores my last sad prediction RTF espically if the end
date is extended GUARANTEES another accident

I have felt all along the ONLY thing that will end the shuttle is
another killer accident....

"ed kyle" wrote in message
oups.com...
During the STS-1 25th anniversary event at KSC, former
astronaut and shuttle program manager John Young said that
the shuttle program should not be arbitrarily stopped in 2010,
but should be kept flying until ISS is complete, etc. He seemed
to be saying that it would be unlikely that NASA could complete
the planned 15 or so shuttle missions between now and 2010.

Since it seems likely that CEV is going to slip past the
planned 2012 start date, I think we will see more calls to keep
STS flying beyond 2010.

Certainly would be possible, but it will cost $$$.

Show me the money.

Jeff
--
Remove icky phrase from email address to get a valid address.

ed kyle wrote:
During the STS-1 25th anniversary event at KSC, former
astronaut and shuttle program manager John Young said that
the shuttle program should not be arbitrarily stopped in 2010,
but should be kept flying until ISS is complete, etc. He seemed
to be saying that it would be unlikely that NASA could complete
the planned 15 or so shuttle missions between now and 2010.

Since it seems likely that CEV is going to slip past the
planned 2012 start date, I think we will see more calls to keep
STS flying beyond 2010.

- Ed Kyle

Not a big surprise. Young had stated during the long wait for STS 114,
the shuttle was as safe as its ever going to be and that NASA should
fly the missions it needs to with shuttle and just get them done with.

Honestly its a sentiment I agree with. The only big technological
addition to the shuttle on STS 114 was the OBS. The ET cam was already
proven on STS 112, the rendevous/pitch maneuver surely could have
easily been slid into training schedules while NASA perfected the OBS
and wing-leading edge sensors. High-resolution cameras proved pretty
damn useful as the potruding gap-filler on STS 114 was visible from the
ISS crew via photography.

And frankly, the ET will always be sheding friggin' foam.

-A.L.