Posted on September 29, 2005, and tagged as
Thirty years, 114 missions, 150 billion dollars. It's not priceless, it's the Space Shuttle program, and according to NASA administrator Michael Griffin the whole effort was a costly mistake. "We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can," he told USA Today in interview published yesterday.
That path leads astronauts back to the moon, and eventually to Mars. Doing little damage means leveraging existing technology and flying without extra bucks from Congress. The agency says it will rely on its current budget plans.
Thirty years, 114 missions, 150 billion dollars. It's not priceless, it's the Space Shuttle program, and according to NASA administrator Michael Griffin the whole effort was a costly mistake. "We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can," he told USA Today in interview published yesterday.
That path leads astronauts back to the moon, and eventually to Mars. Doing little damage means leveraging existing technology and flying without extra bucks from Congress. The agency says it will rely on its current budget plans.
It's a good time for this NASA culpa. Space is getting crowded with competitors: Russia and the European Space Agency this week announced plans to develop a replacement for the Soyuz spacecraft, which has been flying for 38 years. They say the new craft will land on the moon and continue to service the International Space Station. China's military is working rapidly on its manned program, also with an eye on the moon, in the name of "national pride."
Space travel is also going private. Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne grabbed the Ansari X Prize last year for privately launching the first civilian into suborbital space. Mr. Rutan and Virgin's Richard Branson are now working to commercialize the technology. Some X Prize losers are close behind.
The shuttle was sold as an efficient, revenue-generating space bus. But at roughly $1.3 billion per mission, it's a money loser and a poor tool for exploration and economic development. Having lost two crews also casts a shadow on the science gains. Consider the experiments performed by the ill-fated Columbia crew of STS-107, which included a look at how gravity affects the body, why fire dances in space and why whipped cream stays in place when you turn it upside down but flows when it squirts through the nozzle of a can.
Admitting that the agency was wrong to pursue the costly shuttle program that yielded few benefits is one giant step towards returning to the moon. But to avoid a relapse, Mr. Griffin needs to give taxpayers good reasons why they should fork over $104 billion to beat China, Russia and the Europeans to repeat a feat we achieved 36 years ago. We'd bet that Burt Rutan wouldn't risk that much money without the potential for a really big pay-off.
-- Christian Knoebel