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Rep. Dave Weldon (R) fights to keep space shuttle flying |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Monday, 17 December 2007
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 Even though NASA plans on retiring the remaining three space shuttles in the fleet by 2010, and has said it qould be unsafe and counterproductive to do so, Florida Republican congressional representative Dave Weldon wants to keep the shuttles flying up until the Orion crew exploration vehicle system is ready for action. He has put forward two $10 billion proposals to do so.
The first would use the money to accelerate the development of Orion to completion by 2013 and finance shuttle flights in the intervening time. The second would keep Orion on its current schedule of 2015 and continue shuttle flights until then. Congress has already turned down a $1 billion addition to the 2008 NASA budget.
Following a review of the space shuttle program after the 2003 loss of the space shuttle Columbia, President George W. Bush ordered the space shuttle to be retired by 2010. He also directed NASA to complete the International Space Station, develop a replacement for the shuttle system, and land American astronauts on the moon by 2020. From there the Constellation program was born.
Weldon is concerned about the four to five years between the retirement of the space shuttles and the launch of Orion. Without the space shuttle fleet available, NASA would be reliant on external space launch solutions. They are exploring and financing the development of commercial launch systems capable of servicing the ISS, but if they are not able to develop such solutions NASA will have to rely on Russia space systems, like Soyuz.
Congress imposed a ban on purchases from Russia in 2000 in the form of the Iran-Syria Non-Proliferation Act. After the loss of Columbia and NASA's reluctance about overuse of the shuttle, Congress granted the space agency a reprieve from the act so that they could purchase the use of Soyuz rockets to transport crew and supplies to the ISS. The reprieve expires in 2011, and with Russia now accused of selling nuclear material and equipment to Iran, some US politicians are wary of granting NASA the extension they would need to continue manned operations.
"The 2010 date was really an arbitrary date that was really picked more by OMB [the U.S. Office of Management and Budget] than NASA," said Weldon's spokesman. "The risk does not increase overnight. Obviously there's risk, and NASA is doing its best to mitigate it. The risk is worth the goals we set out."
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said it would cost between $2.5 billion and $4 billion a year to keep the shuttles flying. Speaking last month before a congressional committee, he said, "Flying the space shuttle past 2010 would carry significant risks, particularly to our efforts to build and purchase new transportation systems that are less complex, less expensive to operate, and better suited to serving both the ISS and exploration missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond."
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