With the retirement of the space shuttle only 2 1/2 years away, NASA officials and Congressional representatives are increasingly worried about a possible five-year gap in flight operations until a successor vehicle can take over.
In Congressional testimony, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who has lead the agency since 2005, referred to the gap as his “greatest regret and greatest concern….We will be largely dependent on the Russians, and that is terrible place for the United States to be. I’m worried, and many others are worried.”
NASA will not be able to independently reach a space station it has spent 25 years building. Instead, the space agency will be dependent upon Russian Soyuz spacecraft until it can bring its Ares/Orion system online around 2015.
Complicating matters is the fact that NASA will need a waiver to purchase goods and services from the Russians because of that country’s assistance to the Iranian nuclear program. Griffin said the waiver is “unseemly, simply unseemly, for the United States — the world’s leading power and leading space power — to be reduced to purchasing services like this. It affects, in my view, how we are seen in the world, and not for the better.”
One possible solution is SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is being developed to send both crews and cargo to the International Space Station. NASA is providing funding for the program under its COTS program.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said his company might be able to provide human launch services by 2011. This would require NASA to exercise its option to allow SpaceX to provide cargo service. Musk said that decision would allow the company to put human spacecraft development into high gear. Griffin, however, said he doubts that Dragon will be ready even by 2012.
You can read the full story at The Washington Post website. Meanwhile, Florida Congressman Dave Weldon has issued a press release criticizing the Bush Administration’s space policy.
“This is one the biggest strategic blunders I’ve seen,” Weldon said. “While I have supported the Administration on many decisions, this is one of it’s worst. Leaving America without access to space for 5 years or more, they have essentially ceded the ‘ultimate high ground’ to the Russians and Chinese, who have not exactly been our closest allies. We must change course immediately. We can’t sit back, make apologies, and hope for the best.”
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