Home away from home no more?

[Dodece]

The Shuttle program was never intended to be a permanent solution. The goal of the space program was never to be limited to low orbit. The program was designed to perform basic research, field test basic technologies, and to help in the construction of a space station. While the shuttle performed all those functions admirably it was also a disaster for long range space exploration. What you have to understand is the Shuttle exceeded its lifespan by many years, and the very existence of the shuttle was a excuse to not invest heavily in new technologies.

The vehicle itself was both antiquated, and a testament to bad design. It was not a great design for the future of space travel. The engineers who designed it knew that, but they were thinking of the program as being just one in a series of transitional platforms. They were thinking about a decade at the most, and most certainly not three. By this time they would have expected at the very least that two other manned space programs would have come and gone.

The end of the Shuttle program is only going to have a positive impact on the space program. Even for those who think of space as nothing more then a photo opportunity. Without the disproportionate resources going into this program that was generating meager gains at the end. The agency will now have more resources to direct toward a new manned vehicle that will be decades more advanced then the shuttle. Which will not only be more effective in the area of costs which will allow for more missions, but in the areas of crew survivability, and vehicle capability. In other words the successor should not only be able to get into low orbit safely and at a lower cost, but it should probably be capable of making more distant excursions.

Decommissioning the Shuttle is the first positive step towards deep space exploration that has happened in a very long time. The end of the Shuttle program is not the end of manned space flight. It is just the end of having the low expectations we became used to over the last few decades. The terrible truth is the space agency did not want to continue operating the shuttle for as long as it was forced to in the end. It was the politicians handling the purse strings that would always say well they have the shuttle. That should be good enough.

Now with the fleet grounded these politicians are right where space enthusiasts want them. With national pride on the line, and many space programs angling towards matching out past achievements. They are eventually going to need to get serious about real reinvestment in the space program. The truth is we ran it on a shoestring budget for a very long time. We spend about one percent of our budget on NASA, and the agency isn't just about exploring space either. If we are serious about manned exploration with our current technology we need to be spending at least four times that as we did during the Apollo program.

Also for those that claim that NASA is not a startling display of American technological prowess. Where did you get that. The manned space program is simply dwarfed by the successes made in the unmanned program. The space based observatories are making the headlines almost daily, and the interplanetary probes are bringing in a lot of positive feedback. Basically it is what NASA has been doing in this area that has captured the imagination of the world.