Wants Shuttle Replacement In Five Years
NASA's new administrator, Michael Griffin, wants to reduce
what's becoming known as the "shuttle gap" -- the time between
retirement of the current space plane fleet and the construction of
a new generation of orbiters.
So late last month, he sent out a memo outlining what he calls
an "Exploration Architecture Study." It's his demand that NASA pare
down the field of companies hoping to build the next shuttle fleet
to just two competitors by the end of July and to pick the finalist
by early next year. Griffin, appearing for all the world like a man
of action, wants to make sure that when the International Space
Station is finished in 2010, American ships will be there to
service it.
NASA spokesman Dean Acosta said
Griffin is trying to "find a way to close the gap." But in doing
so, the new administrator faces some stiff challenges from within
his own agency. The man who designed a program for "Moon, Mars and
Beyond," Rear Adm. Craig Steidle (USN, Ret.) is fast falling by the
wayside in favor of one being developed by a small strategy team
Griffin has assembled, a core group of NASA thinkers that has been
likened to the group which put together the Apollo program more
than four decades ago.
There is friction. Steidle told the Washington Post in a recent
telephone interview, he believes NASA needs "no change in the way
the program is going to be managed." He also denied talk that
Griffin's move-faster approach might prompt his resignation.
"We're on the same path," said Steidle, who is NASA's associate
administrator for exploration systems. He told the Post, "If there
are rumors out there that we are differing on this, that is not
true."
But Steidle's plan moved much more slowly than what Griffin
apparently wants. It called for NASA acceptance of two competing
proposals in the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) program by August.
The two companies would stage an unmanned launch competition by
2008 and would supposedly have the CEV online and ready to go by
2014.
In the meantime, between 2010 and 2014, Russia's Soyuz program
would be the only way to and from the ISS. America would, for that
four-year interval be much as it is right now -- sidelined in the
business of exploring space.
"We can't allow that kind of
hiatus," said Senate science and space subcommittee Chairman Kay
Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) on Capitol Hill recently. She, too, was
quoted by the Post. "It is a national security threat to our
country, and I intend to pursue everything I can to shorten that
time frame."
During his confirmation hearings earlier this year, Griffin
agreed, saying America needs to remain the dominant influence in
space exploration.
Skeptics point to the money it will take to speed up production
of a new space shuttle before 2014. "If you want to do it faster,"
one source told the Post, "generally you're going to have to throw
more money at it."