Last week, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin sat down the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board and reporter Eric Berger to discuss a range of issues. Some highlights:
Griffin is opposed, for reasons of safety and cost, to efforts by Congressman Dave Weldon and others to extend the shuttle program beyond 2010.
China will “probably” get to the moon before the United States. “They are constructing a very well-crafted space program. They are doing things on a number of fronts — economic, political, military — that seem to have the intent of establishing China as a strategic power in the world.”
Griffin does not want another “space race.” Although the Apollo program was a stunning achievement, America was not able to use it as part of a long-term space exploration effort with sufficient political and public support.
New space shuttle manager John Shannon said NASA should not extend operations of the vehicle beyond its planned retirement date in 2010, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Although the shuttle is an “awesome” spacecraft, it is also aging and flawed.
“I should not have to go inspect my vehicle after ascent to make sure I survived my ascent environment,” Shannon said. “Its flexibility makes it unparalleled in building a space station, but once that is complete the shuttle has completed its mission and it’s time to move on.”
Worried about a potential five-year gap in flight operations between the end of shuttle and the start of Constellation operations, some groups are advocating extending the life of the shuttle program. Florida Congressmen Dave Weldon wants to fly a limited number of additional flights to resupply the International Space Station and to bring Constellation online earlier.
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.
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