NASA astronauts at risk over Georgian conflict
Published: 05 September, 2008, 17:14
Edited: 27 November, 2009, 18:15
NASA is examining the possibility of keep its ageing fleet of space shuttles flying for up to five years past their 2010 retirement date. NASA official, Mike Griffin, has said that the South Ossetian crisis may cut off access to Russian Soyuz rockets, lea
TRULY, I am intrigued by the prospect of a British - Russian consortium intent on resurrecting 'Buran'! When Norm Augustine was in Germany [on May 8th when NASA announced formation of the "Human Space Flight Review" commission which shall bear Norm's name inevitably]: Did he visit the museum to see 'Buran'? If so, were there any reported comments or press coverage? If not, then, why not? It has been two and a half weeks since Commission announcement, while I am still searching - somewhat diligently - for an authoritative list of Commission members to be made public. Realizing: When NASA has STS-125 mission in progress [for Hubble Space Telescope repairs and upgrades] - it is rather difficult to simultaneously walk and chew gum for some of our well paid rocket scientists.
Our country must stop trying to be the police force for the world. Buying countries favor, getting involved in backing governments that are bellicose to their neighbors ( like Georgia ) and return our troops to American soil. We can ill afford the cost both financial and our youth. War should be fought by politicians with politicians. "I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone." Mencken, H. L.
Is this an International Space Station as the US keeps saying. If so, lets keep politics out of it!
The sad part is that our space program is at the whims of a congress that fluctuates with the wind. Depending on Russia is not a good thing, for many reasons the least of which is political. Yes it is an international space station, lets get some more international funds to support it so we don't have to depend on a fickle congress that prefers to load a lot of pork onto their own turf rather than support what should most certainly be a beacon of pride for our country a US led space program. There is a lot more trickle-down benefit for the nation than there is in congressional pork.
The shuttle is old. Time to move on to Orion. Most of the shuttle tasks have been funded through college experiments. This old and aniquated. If there is any doubtful risk of losing people in space. I can't beleive it's even in question. Retire the fleet and move forward.
Years ago when the plans to buddy up to Russia for ISS work we knew their past history. We need to learn to keep our nose out of other countries bussiness and continue with the retirement of the shuttles and forward the work on Orion. If Politics were gonna be a risk factor when past decisions were made to use Russian transports then congress should of factored in some kind of gap filler if that county's behavior was gonna be an issue. Refurbishment money for a couple of shuttles, possibly help developing a European or Japanese transport vehicle and / or speed up the development of Orion. As a country we seem to always pick the "wrong side" to support then run aground later. Don't these people in Washington every think past "next week". I say Continue the work planned and just let the politicians whine.
I think this demonstrates the fallacy of "re-usable" Space Launchers and Craft. The cost of refurbishment outweighs that of simple replacement by a wide margin. I think the SovUnion was in error in producing a similar vehicle even though they proved Astro/Cosmo-nauts are not necessary for space operations except as passengers/payload specialists. If they'd hung on to Apollo-Saturn, and emulated the R7/Soyuz pattern the U.S wouldn't be in this situation.