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NASA to Propose Space Lifeboat Tuesday
Monday, February 17, 2003
GOLDEN, Colo. ? After a delay because of the shuttle tragedy, NASA plans to give space contractors more information on Tuesday on a proposed orbital space plane that would serve as a lifeboat for crew members of the international space station.
The concept took on increased importance after the space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry on Feb. 1, killing its crew of seven.
The remaining shuttles have been grounded while NASA investigates, leaving a three-person crew stranded indefinitely on the space station.
Lockheed Martin's space systems division in Jefferson County, along with Boeing Corp., Northrup Grumman and a number of other smaller firms, will receive specifics on the space plane, such as weight, thermal protection and number of crew members. The announcement has been on hold since Feb. 3.
The space plane would be about half the size of a shuttle, which is 184 feet long. And it would be a fraction of a shuttle's weight, which is about 4.5 million pounds.
Eventually, the space plane would transport crew and cargo to and from space station Alpha.
"In the early 1990s, one of the reasons we thought we could wait (to develop a space plane) was the shuttles were still fairly new," said Dennis Smith, NASA's orbital space plane project manager.
"Now, it's to the point where we need an alternate system. We need multiple ways to fly people to space," Smith said. "We've been asked to see if there's anything we can do faster."
Smith said NASA plans to put a spacecraft in flight by 2010 and humans on the missions by 2012.
"We're simply moving forward as fast as we can while getting through the grief of what happened," he said.
A three-person Russian Soyuz craft is docked at the space station for emergencies, but the space station's partners have relied heavily on the U.S. shuttles for hauling people and cargo.
NASA to Propose Space Lifeboat Tuesday
Monday, February 17, 2003
GOLDEN, Colo. ? After a delay because of the shuttle tragedy, NASA plans to give space contractors more information on Tuesday on a proposed orbital space plane that would serve as a lifeboat for crew members of the international space station.
The concept took on increased importance after the space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry on Feb. 1, killing its crew of seven.
The remaining shuttles have been grounded while NASA investigates, leaving a three-person crew stranded indefinitely on the space station.
Lockheed Martin's space systems division in Jefferson County, along with Boeing Corp., Northrup Grumman and a number of other smaller firms, will receive specifics on the space plane, such as weight, thermal protection and number of crew members. The announcement has been on hold since Feb. 3.
The space plane would be about half the size of a shuttle, which is 184 feet long. And it would be a fraction of a shuttle's weight, which is about 4.5 million pounds.
Eventually, the space plane would transport crew and cargo to and from space station Alpha.
"In the early 1990s, one of the reasons we thought we could wait (to develop a space plane) was the shuttles were still fairly new," said Dennis Smith, NASA's orbital space plane project manager.
"Now, it's to the point where we need an alternate system. We need multiple ways to fly people to space," Smith said. "We've been asked to see if there's anything we can do faster."
Smith said NASA plans to put a spacecraft in flight by 2010 and humans on the missions by 2012.
"We're simply moving forward as fast as we can while getting through the grief of what happened," he said.
A three-person Russian Soyuz craft is docked at the space station for emergencies, but the space station's partners have relied heavily on the U.S. shuttles for hauling people and cargo.
