Grounded

29 July 2005



NASA Error Casts Doubt on Space Shuttle’s Future

After two and a half years of re-engineering and good hard thinking, NASA put the space shuttle Discovery in orbit earlier this week. And once again, some foam insulation broke off the external fuel tank. The same event caused damage to the Columbia’s ceramic tile heat shield causing the loss of the crew and craft. In a better-late-than-never move, NASA has grounded the rest of the shuttle fleet and is working on getting the orbiting astronauts home.

NASA does get credit for admitting to a mistake. In a move unprecedented since George W. Bush was appointed president by the Supreme Court, shuttle program manager Bill Parsons said, “You have to admit when you're wrong and we were wrong. We have to do some more work here. Until we fix this, we're not ready to go fly again.” It would be nice if the rest of the administration could learn those three simple words – “we were wrong.”

However, being wrong has put the lives of seven astronauts in jeopardy. Discovery remains scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center on August 7, and if there is any problem with the craft, the crew can take refuge in the International Space Station until a rescue vessel (probably a Russian Soyuz or three) can come and get them. So the good news is that the ISS finally has a purpose. However, if there is a problem that goes unnoticed . . . .

But the question that NASA and its backers in Congress have failed to ask is just why does America retain a shuttle program at all? The technology is three decades old, and if a reusable manned craft had a purpose, at very least a 21st Century design is in order. That even begs the question of why people are needed in space at this juncture of exploration. In the 1960s and 1970s, the human race needed to see just what it could do in space. It discovered that there was very little to do up there that couldn’t be done as well and cheaper with machines.

There is the romance of space travel and the allure of going to distant worlds that resonates in the soul of any person how has ever looked up at the night sky. But romance is a lousy basis upon which to build a space policy – and America needs one that is rational, affordable and scientifically useful. With the shuttle fleet grounded indefinitely, this is an opportune time to start that debate.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
Produced using Fedora Linux.

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