NASA’s Space Station Plans May Be Cut Short
Posted on: Friday, 12 September 2008, 13:00 CDT
NASA chief Michael Griffin in an e-mail admitted to being “about as pessimistic as it is possible to be” about NASA’s future presence on the International Space Station.
For safety and cost reasons, US policy is set to retire the space shuttle fleet in 2010, which is 5 years before replacement ships will be ready to takeover the job of ferrying crews to the ISS.
The European Space Agency (ESA) had joined NASA in designing a station crew-return vehicle based on the X-38 experimental craft, but it was never completed.
"That was cancelled by a US government decision when almost all the European components were ready or already delivered," said Marco Caporicci, the head of the ESA’s Future Space Transport and Infrastructure Division.
That decision to depend on the Russians is squarely at odds with US policymakers who slapped a trade embargo on Russia after concerns of weapons proliferation to Iran and North Korea.
NASA won an exemption to the ban to buy Soyuz rides and related technical support through to 2011.
With the recent Russian incursion into neighboring Georgia, Dr Griffin said the exemption request was "DoA" (dead on arrival.)
"The Russians are not going to back out of Georgia anytime soon, certainly not prior to the (US presidential) election," he wrote.
"We might get some relief somewhere well down the road, if and when tensions ease, but my guess is that there is going to be a lengthy period with no US crew on the ISS after 2011."
NASA’s request for an additional $1 billion to speed the replacement shuttle’s development was denied. New capsules are expected to be used in 2015.
NASA’s dilemma will also spell out trouble for international crews.
The US promised transportation services to its European, Japanese and Canadian partners, which provided laboratories and other equipment for the space station.
Europe has a cargo hauler, the ATV, which made its debut flight this year. Caporicci said a proposal is being prepared for the ESA Ministerial Council for a cargo transportation capability that may be evolved to carry astronauts.
"To achieve this second step, it will be necessary to analyze in detail the implications of adapting the Ariane 5 launcher and its ground segment to human spaceflight," Caporicci said.
"Any such decision would be coordinated with further improvements of the Ariane 5 launcher driven by the commercial missions.
"This successive step will be the subject of a dedicated decision by the Esa Member States at the occasion of the next Ministerial Council, once the programmatic framework will have been fully identified,"
Dr Griffin says he sees no political alternative, but for whomever is the next US president to decide to keep the shuttle flying.
"This [White House] Administration will not yield with regard to continuing Shuttle operations past 2010, but the next Administration will have no investment in that decision. They will tell us to extend Shuttle.”
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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