After shuttle, U.S. would pay Russia for space access

Man, 68, drowns at Caesar Creek Lake
5/26/12
Water rescues prompt warning from health officials
5/25/12
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
5/25/12
Raleigh Trammell’s defense opens in felony trial
5/25/12
UD to move satellite campus to Dublin
5/25/12
> More headlines

By Randy Tucker, Staff Writer Updated 1:53 AM Sunday, April 10, 2011

DAYTON — NASA will end its space shuttle program after the final launch of the Atlantis this summer, leaving the United States without a manned space program for the first time in more than 30 years.

Some local lawmakers, former astronauts and scientists who have led the effort to bring one of three retiring shuttles to the Dayton area lament Congress’ decision to end funding for the program in favor of more vital U.S. interests.

“Frankly, since NASA represents right around 1 percent of the federal budget each year, it’s amazing that something as magnificent, and such a source of pride, inspiration and national recognition, is being trashed the way it is,” said Mark Brown, a former astronaut and Dayton businessman who has flown on the shuttles Columbia and Discovery.

Still, Brown said, it’s more important than ever to remain committed to the U.S. space program: “If not, we’re going to end up with a lost-in-space program.”

NASA’s first step toward maintaining relevance has been to seek agreements with private companies to help shoulder the cost of developing rockets and crew capsules. NASA already has contracts with two private companies to develop and launch rockets and spacecraft.

One of those companies — California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — announced last week that its Falcon Heavy rocket would be ready for lift off at the end of 2012.

The Falcon Heavy is the biggest launch vehicle in the world — comprised of three Falcon 9 rockets that are capable of transporting astronauts and huge payloads into space at less than half the cost of space shuttle launches, according to SpaceX, as the company is commonly known.

But the Falcon 9 rocket has yet to meet NASA requirements for manned space missions, and NASA’s inspector general recently said the rocket is unlikely to be ready to launch the agency’s unmanned science missions until late 2013 or 2014.

Therein lies the problem with NASA’s new commercial partnerships, Brown said.

“The companies that have stepped up and said they’d like to do this clearly are not the Boeing, the Lockheed (Martin) or ATK companies that are already in the space business,’’ he said. “(The new companies) can come up with some fairly innovative ideas on spacecraft that would put stuff in orbit. But they lack the experience and infrastructure that allows you to conduct space operations in a safe and competent way.’’

By the time the commercial efforts to replace NASA’s fleet of launch vehicles come to fruition, the government may end up spending more money than it would have cost to simply continue funding the shuttle program, Brown said.

“Eventually, you’re going to end up with a new set of Boeings, Lockheeds and ATKs, when we could have just started off with them in the very beginning,” he said.

Shelving the shuttle program has also forced NASA to rely on Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, which recently agreed to transport American astronauts to the International Space Station on its Soyuz space capsule at a cost of about $63 million per seat.

Dependence on Russia puts the United States in a precarious situation, said Brown, who pointed out that NASA has relied on the Russians before to send Americans into space following the two-year grounding of U.S. spacecraft after the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster.

“They (Russians) agreed to give us so many seats (on their spacecraft) at a fixed price, but they raised the price once we were no longer flying,” Brown said. “I’m very concerned that we’re again putting ourselves in kind of a hostage situation, where once the shuttle fleet is retired and on display in different museums, they can charge anything they want.”

Russia may already be flexing its muscle in space, forcing the postponement of the final launch of the space shuttle Endeavour because the original launch date slated for Friday conflicted with Russia’s plans to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station. The Endeavour is now scheduled to lift off on April 29.

“I think it’s a shame that our country allowed us to be in this situation,” said Michael Heil, president of the Ohio Aerospace Institute in Cleveland. “But I view it as being temporary.”

Heil said cooperating with the Russians isn’t all bad because it will allow the U.S. to continue important work, such as crucial climate research, while buying time to develop faster and cheaper ways to gain access to space through the public-private partnerships.

“I think NASA and the Air Force working with this new commercial space industry can help keep the United States maintain a leadership role,’’ he said. “This temporary gap in which we’ll be relying on Russian vehicles to get astronauts into space will be alleviated in a short period of time when some of these commercial systems start becoming available.”

Once that happens, a new U.S. shuttle program could take off at a faster pace than the current program, Heil said.

“Right now, every shuttle launch is like a science experiment,’’ he said. “It takes months to get it off the ground, and it always costs too much money.

“The Holy Grail, where we want to be headed as a nation, will be routine, reliable, responsive access to space,’’ he said. “That’s what these private companies are doing. They’re helping to reduce the cost of getting into space.”

1 | 2 next page »

See Shuttle on Page A

Share this article