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Space shuttles to continue flying in private sector?

  • 07-02-2011 8:06pm
    #1
    Conor108
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,871 ✭✭✭


    From Popular Science.com

    A NASA contractor wants to go all Brett Favre on America’s space shuttles, pulling them out of retirement past their prime to keep them going, even if it’s to play for the other side.

    United Space Alliance, which manages the shuttle program for NASA, wants to spend $1.5 billion annually to fly two missions a year from 2013 to 2017, using Endeavour and Atlantis. It would bridge the gap between the end of the shuttle program and the start of privately run space taxis, and help prevent American reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

    The shuttles couldn’t emerge from retirement until 2013, however, after the construction of a new external tank. The last tank ever made is dedicated for Atlantis, which will be ready to fly a rescue mission during Endeavour’s April mission. If it’s not needed, Atlantis will close out the shuttle program with its final mission in June.

    United Space Alliance broached the subject as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Initiative, a program to encourage private shuttle replacements. NASA disbursed $50 million in stimulus funds to five companies as part of the initiative, and USA is the only one to suggest continuous shuttle use. NASA has $200 million for a second round of the initiative. Competitors include SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, which are already receiving NASA funds to develop cargo transportation systems.

    Mark Nappi, head of USA’s Florida operations, told Florida Today it’s worth a shot to include the shuttle among other commerical options, because they have more than proven themselves: “It is safe. We have a lot of history, we understand how to operate it,” he said.

    The company proposed a six-month study of the privatized-shuttle option, which is actually not a new concept — NASA has studied it going back at least a decade. Meanwhile, NASA is apparently looking at the costs of keeping Endeavour in flight-ready status at Kennedy Space Center after its final launch, MSNBC reported last week. Space shuttle Discovery has already been promised to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

    The $1.5 billion price tag is about the same cost as NASA’s cargo contract with SpaceX, which involves at least 12 trips to the International Space Station. It’s about half the cost ($3.1 billion) budgeted for the space shuttle program in 2010, according to USA Today.

    The whole plan is a long shot, however. Nappi said he told his employees as much to avoid giving them false hope.

    Would be weird to see shuttles being launched by a private company. Suppose they'd have to train their own astronauts or borrow NASA/ESA's.

    Story Link


Comments

  • #2
    clln
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,059 ✭✭✭clln


    Conor108 wrote: »
    Would be weird to see shuttles being launched by a private company. Suppose they'd have to train their own astronauts or borrow NASA/ESA's.

    Story Link

    Hi Conor, It is too late for that now IMO,it has not made Headline news but for over two years now people who worked on the Shuttle in many facilities have lost there jobs,moved onto others or in some cases are just unemployed,many of them have moved thousands of miles away to new homes.
    NASA's Astronaut corp is down to the mid 40s with more leaving almost every day.

    I hate to do this but Beeker started a thread about this at the link below.
    the shuttle had many design flaws and over time the real experts that made up the team learned every trick in the book to get it to keep flying,i do not believe the private sector would spend so much money as NASA have been doing,it would once again end in tragedy, IMO.

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056169174


  • #3
    Conor108
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,871 ✭✭✭Conor108


    Oh dam didn't see that!:)I was thinking it even sounds like a bad idea.

    Merge/slash delete mods? Thanks


  • #4
    clln
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,059 ✭✭✭clln


    Conor108 wrote: »
    Oh dam didn't see that!:)I was thinking it even sounds like a bad idea.

    Merge/slash delete mods? Thanks

    Lol Conor glad you were not offended by the link,sometimes i see it happen in forums in a very rude way that a poster is redirected.

    the poll in AH.s about depression and the honesty by so many boards members about how much they are suffering has made me really stop to think about how i respond to a poster in any forum.
    i try to thread softly now lest i thread on their dreams.
    A&S posters are i believe the biggest dreamers of all for they dream of wonderful things!:)


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