Agency Comments Explain, Amplify Shuttle And ISS
"Mistakes"
We didn't think that Mike Griffin's comments were that big a
deal. Most space heads have been souring on the Space Shuttle and
the ISS for some time -- some of them for a very long time
indeed.
People love the shuttle because it's manned spaceflight, and
it's very nearly all the manned spaceflight we've got. But it is
just plain fact that it never fulfilled its promise, and that it's
proven to be more costly, risky, and slow than anybody intended
when the program got underway in 1971. In order to make the Shuttle
safe from budget cutters, all other bridges to space were burned at
the time.
As the clarification points out, the complexity of the
shuttle results in part from its need to carry both crew and cargo.
The clarification doesn't mention the other factors driving
complexity, which included DOD requirements and the
horizontal-landing, aerodynamic-reentry configuration.
The principal clarifications in the document, however, are:
1. The shuttle is coming
to the end of its utility. We need something different to go back
out of low earth orbit.
2. Much shuttle technology will be used in our next-gen
system.
3. We can't just ground the shuttles now -- we need to keep our
space infrastructure in place.
4. The ISS will be completed in the five years of Shuttle
flights we have left.
5. The "mistake" with the ISS was moving it from 28.5 degrees to
a 51.6 degree inclination -- which makes it a less desirable base
for space exploration. (For launching ships to the planets, the
closer to the ecliptic -- the plane in which all the planets but
Pluto orbit the sun, about 23 degrees -- the better).
We present here the entire document as provided by NASA Public
Affairs.
We have deleted only the phone numbers and names of the NASA
PAOs that wrote it. (If everybody who gets PropWash or reads the
web news called 'em, they'd probably trade us to Dr. Zooch for
use as test subjects or something equally unpleasant). Aero-News
comments are in brackets ([like this]).
OSO PAO Point Paper Sept. 28, 2005
SUBJECT: GRIFFIN USA Today Editorial Board Comments
Background: Administrator Griffin spoke with USA Today editorial
board members and reporters on September 27. He discussed a wide
range of issues, including how he believes the space shuttle and
international space station should have been developed and run
differently. USA Today said Griffin called the shuttle and station
"mistakes."
The country has a sound and fiscally responsible plan to move
forward, in a deliberate fashion, to explore space. This is the
appropriate path forward for NASA and the country. That plan
includes utilizing the space shuttle to meet our international
commitments and assemble the space station, then retiring the
shuttle, after decades of service, in 2010. It is time to retire
the shuttle and move to a system that will allow expanded
exploration of the universe. The Columbia Accident Investigation
Board noted that the shuttle system was not designed to explore
beyond low earth orbit. The ability to return to the moon, and move
on to Mars, requires a new system and deliberate plan to transition
to that new system. If America is going to explore, and we are, we
must accomplish our goals with a system other than the space
shuttle.
Points
Shuttle
The space shuttle does some things very well, like heavy lift,
but it is a very complex machine and has its limitations. That's a
major reason why the shuttle will be retired in five years after
completing assembly of the space station and we will replace it
with a new, safer generation of spacecraft that will meet our
future exploration goals and needs. The space shuttle simply is not
designed to accomplish the long-term goals of the Vision for Space
Exploration.
However, we are using
key components from the space shuttle system for our future
exploration vehicles, the space shuttle main engines and solid
rocket boosters.
The Shuttle was designed as a multipurpose vehicle, which led to
its complexity. NASA's new architecture separates crew and cargo
vehicles. This approach was also recommended by the Columbia
Accident Investigation Board. [See graphic of twin new spacecraft,
crew and cargo vehicles]
Despite its limitations, Griffin has said it would be unwise to
permanently ground shuttles now because of cost and risk –
You need an orderly and deliberate phase out and retirement and
that will take five years.
If we shut down now and allow the work force and skills to
atrophy (like what happened between Apollo and the first shuttle
flight 1975-81), you add a lot of risk into launching missions.
NASA needs to avoid a large time gap between flying space shuttle
missions and flying new vehicles.
o Shutting down the shuttle now won't save money. In fact, it
will cost more than an orderly transition to the new vehicles.
Consequences of shut down the shuttle program include:
It will cost about $10 billion to pay for our international
partner obligations
It will cost money to let go the shuttle workforce. Workers
whose skills and institutional knowledge would be lost. We can't
afford to lose those workers. The cost of rehiring and retraining
them would be more than maintaining the current workforce.
[See photo of Shuttle Orbiter being refurbished]
It will cost money in early termination fees for our current
shuttle contracts
International Space Station
Griffin has said he believes it was a mistake to change the
planned orbit of the space station from an inclination of 28.5 to
51.6 degrees because it limits flexibility in performing certain
exploration missions.
Griffin said changing the inclination to 51.6 means the station
could do research, but not be a real stepping stone for
exploration.
28.5 degrees inclination, which is the latitude of NASA's
Kennedy Space Center, would allow us to carry heavier payloads to
orbit.
Also, the 28.5 inclination is closer to the planetary plane
inclination (the orbital plane, which is called the ecliptic, where
most of the planets revolve around the Sun) and therefore a station
located at 28.5 could have been used as an easier launching point
for planetary missions than 51.6.
Additional Background
International Space Station Expedition 12
NASA and Russia confirmed at the Flight Readiness Review meeting
for the next crew for the international space station on Sept. 19
that NASA Astronaut and Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur will
have a ride back to Earth next April on the same Soyuz that will
bring him to the station this October.