looking at options to extend the Shuttle program !!

[nec208]

<p>An anonymous reader alerts us to an Orlando Sentinel report based on a leaked NASA email, indicating that <font color="#005555">NASA is looking at options to extend the Shuttle program</font>. The fighting between Russia and Georgia has put a strain on plans to rely on Russian boosters until the Shuttle's replacement flies in 2015. Yet extending the Shuttle's life is no sure thing. According to a former NASA program manager, "We started shutting down the shuttle four years ago. That horse has left the barn." And NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has told Congress that if the Shuttle fleet were to fly two missions a year until 2015, "the risk would be about one in 12 that we would lose another crew. That's a high risk... [one] I would not choose to accept on behalf of our astronauts." And then there's the matter of finding the $4 billion a year it would take to keep the fleet operational. The Sentinel mentions that John McCain has called for additional Shuttle flights, but doesn't mention that <font color="#005555">Barack Obama has made the same point</font>, as the BBC reports. </p><p>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>&nbsp;http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/31/171205</p><p>I believe they are going to keep the shuttle going <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif" border="0" alt="Smile" title="Smile" />.They are&nbsp;not going to go 2 or 3 years with out going into space to swevice the ISS .</p><p>And it looks like the US and Russia are going into other cold war do to the problems they are having.</p><p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Swampcat]

<p><font color="#008800"><strong>Nasa considers shuttle shelf-life</strong></font></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Already a thread on this subject&nbsp;<img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-wink.gif" border="0" alt="Wink" title="Wink" />&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="3" color="#ff9900"><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>------------------------------------------------------------------- </em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."</em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong>Thomas Jefferson</strong></font></p></font> </div>