R
radarredux
Guest
Random thought, for which I apologize if this has been already discussed to death:<br /><br />Delay the completion of much of ISS for some time after 2015 to reduce the number of shuttle flights and retire the shuttle early. Redirect the money and efforts to (1) quickly developing an SRB and capsule CEV capable of accessing ISS and (2) developing a shuttle derived heavy launch vehicle (HLV). Use the HLV to complete the ISS (as well as for Moon, Mars, and Beyond).<br /><br />Any thoughts?<br /><br />-----------<br />Motivating Points:<br /><br />(1) NASA's new leader is not only familiar with The Planetary Society's report on extending human presence into space, he was a co-team leader on the project.<br />http://planetary.org/aimformars/study-summary.html<br /><br />(2) The Planetary Society's report talked about the need for a heavy lift capability, and it seemed to favor a shuttled derived system.<br /><br />(3) The Planetay Society's report presented a roadmap that would use a capsule design and shuttle SRB to achieve initial manned access to orbit much earlier than the current CEV schedule.<br /><br />(4) A recent NPR story included Griffin saying we may need to become creative in getting ISS components up to the ISS.<br />http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4625287<br /><br />(5) Griffin has mentioned a number of times that the current planned gap for US manned-access to space (and the ISS in particular) (from shuttle retirement to CEV operations) was not politically popular.<br />http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1016<br />http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20050412/sc_space/nasachiefnomineepledg