P
PJay_A
Guest
Over the past few months, NASA has quietly added two shuttle flights to its manifest. Both are dedicated for logistics, carrying supplies and rack equipment. Considering the risky nature of adding more shuttle flights to the manifest, wouldn't it be more prudent to buy H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) launches from Japan, considering that, like the shuttle and unlike Russia's Progress and ESA's ATV supply and logistic vehicles, it's capable of carrying US standard racks. Is there any logical reason why we can not do that other than having to bite our national pride and buy launch services from a foriegn country? With the shuttle fleet set to retire and no US substitute for immediate availablity, it simply makes sense for us to buy H-II/HTV launch services from Japan for its practicality, availability, smart economics, and (most important of all) the safety of our astronauts.