Retiring the Shuttle fleet?

[DurocShark]

NASA hopes to fly the shuttle 18 more times to the space station and once more to the Hubble Space Telescope for a servicing call before the fleet is retired in 2010.

I thought they canned the replacement space plane thing? Are we back to disposable rockets now?

 

[Mickey Eye]

Or hitching a lift off the russkies. I'm joking...


I'm dissapointed if theres not going to be a replacement but maybe it's just not cost effective. After all the reason the russians are doing alright in the commercial launch sector is simply because what they have works.

 

[dug777]

a really big rope

 

[meltdown75]

everyone should team up like they did in Contact and have one single vision for space exploration! fsck yeah!! the US, the Chinese, the Russians, everyone! all together, kicking ass, building uber-ships like you've never even DREAMED of!

/wakes up
/rubs eyes

n/m

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: dug777
a really big rope

Don't tease us or we'll crash the ISS (when we're done with it) into Australia too...

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: dug777
a really big rope

Don't tease us or we'll crash the ISS (when we're done with it) into Australia too...

hahaha, someone i know down Esperance way had chunks of skylab land on their farm...

 

[DurocShark]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: dug777
a really big rope

Don't tease us or we'll crash the ISS (when we're done with it) into Australia too...

Skylab was a tiny thing compared to the ISS. We could have some real fun dropping that puppy!

 

[Feldenak]

The shuttles were never intended to be the end-all be-all for NASA. They are well beyond the lifespan originally intended for them.

 

[Mickey Eye]

I think the OP knew that... he's just wondering what happened to all the nifty spaceplane concepts that have evaporated over the years....

Hmm... evaporation... that might work.. it does go up after all.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Mickey Eye
I think the OP knew that... he's just wondering what happened to all the nifty spaceplane concepts that have evaporated over the years....

Hmm... evaporation... that might work.. it does go up after all.

Once they do some of the design work and see what it would actually cost to produce (+200% for the usual overruns in a project like this) they balk at the price and cancel the project.

Mainly it was about building ($$$) the ISS, which has turned out to be a massive waste of money since they killed the return craft projecct.

 

[elektrolokomotive]

Space elevator FTW!

 

[sao123]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
The shuttles were never intended to be the end-all be-all for NASA. They are well beyond the lifespan originally intended for them.

actually not.
This is the most awesome book ive ever read...

But the space shuttle was designed for over 100 flights for each of the 4 orbiters. Enterprise being the exception, was a test vehicle and never meant for space flight.
Inaddition after challenger blew up, a sixth orbiter was built.
Weve come nowhere near the supposed 400-500 missions we should have gotten from the shuttle.

 

[TechBoyJK]

screw nasa, private space exploration is where its at... theres another x prize on the way.. and the stakes are much higher.

 

[Zanix]

They should put the old ones on ebay.

 

[oddyager]

Originally posted by: TechBoyJK
screw nasa, private space exploration is where its at... theres another x prize on the way.. and the stakes are much higher.

Yeah I saw something on TV once with Richard Branson funding the project to take people up into space. Well the wealthy for now.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Originally posted by: oddyager

Originally posted by: TechBoyJK
screw nasa, private space exploration is where its at... theres another x prize on the way.. and the stakes are much higher.

Yeah I saw something on TV once with Richard Branson funding the project to take people up into space. Well the wealthy for now.

For private space exploration to happen there needs to be a way to make money off of it. So far the only legal idea's anyone has had is to do space tourism, which relies on the super rich wanting to pay many millions for a few hours (at best) in space. That can last for at best a few years, and then they hope that some breakthrough technology will have made it cheap enough to lower the price to only a few hundred thousand dollars for a few hours in space, giving them a few more years.

For the privation of space to occur we need laws that allow land (and mineral right) ownership on other worlds, moons, and asteroids as well as orbits. Then the corporations that have the huge amounts money needed to actually do this might get interested.
Until then we are stuck with government space exploration. Which I think is still important enough to demand more money then we are currently giving it.