The Houston Chronicle is concerned that the United States will lose its leading role in space exploration.
The Chronicle’s editors are primarily worried about a possible five-year gap in human spaceflight that could follow the retirement of the space shuttle in 2010. It may take NASA that long to get its new Constellation system online. In the meantime, NASA will be dependent upon the Russians for rides to the International Space Station. And China will be expanding its human spaceflight program.
“Congress should heed U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and other lawmakers who are pressing for an additional $2 billion to speed up the construction of the Orion vehicle,” the editors say.
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.