August 4, 2008
Mike Griffin Wishes He Could Continue Flying The Shuttle
NASA's Griffin Tells Forum Crowd There Are No Guarantees In Space Travel, Aero-News.net
"When asked what would he do if "wishes were free" and NASA's budget were doubled (the equivalent of the inflation-adjusted program for Apollo), the Administrator's response was as follows: 1) [We] wouldn't rely on another country and would develop a new system in parallel to continuing to use the Space Shuttle; 2) Begin working on vehicle systems sooner; and 3) Do more advanced research, the "blue sky stuff."
Editor's note: Wait a minute: after 3 years of saying that NASA must retire the Space Shuttle, is Mike Griffin now saying that he'd continue flying the shuttle if he had enough money - despite what the CAIB recommended (safety, recertification etc) ? Hmm ... this sounds a lot like something one of the presidential candidates (and their surrogates) has been saying ...
Posted by kcowing at August 4, 2008 12:06 PM
Editor,
Which presidential candidate? I'm curious but don't have time to dig through the political BS on the net. Thanks.
Editor's note: Obama - and Sen. Glenn.
Posted by: Son of NASA-00001 at August 4, 2008 2:37 PMWhy not keep flying the shuttle? Even though these vehicles are old, we need something to bridge the gap until our next generation vehicles are ready to handle the mission. Maybe cut back on two flights a year as a crew exchange and cargo ship.
Posted by: E51E104 at August 4, 2008 6:51 PME51,
One very expensive reason: STS ops consume over 50% of NASA's total budget.
The second very expensive reason: due to serious wiring and corrosion issues (think a beach chair), the CAIB recommended recertification of the fleet if ops were to continue beyond 2010.
If NASA had a $50B budget, then there would be room for actually building a new OV-series orbiter (Daedaelus, perhaps?) as well as having a replacement development program running at the same time.
Alas, this isn't happening.
Posted by: Dave H. at August 5, 2008 5:27 PM