Feb 28, 2011

Posted by in NASA, current

End of the Shuttle, Foam and Nerves

The Space Shuttle: Nixon's folly, ably flown by NASA

I always thought the shuttle was a mistake. Too many parties made demands on NASA. So we got a deadly combo: crew and heavy lift vehicle combined—with virtually no crew safety systems.

The Pentagon wanted this to launch big satellites and have a large stable manned spying platform. James Beggs, the NASA administrator back then, should have said no. But he gave them what they asked for and made impossible promises of cheap, frequent manned spaceflights.

We lost two crews and shuttles.at this late date, I am fearful about losing a third. It will probably be okay, but foam hit the shuttle during launch of the current flight.

Despite being stuck with such a dangerous vehicle, NASA did an amazing job with it since 1981. They flew a huge number of missions over 3 decades. Does anyone believe Apollo (which was even more impressive) could have flow that long with only 2 disasters. But the fact that there was no escape option for the shuttle (Apollo DID have one) emphasizes the unnecessary dangers built into the shuttle design.

Anyhow, the shuttles will live on in museums. And I’m looking forward…with some trepidation…to a new American manned spacecraft.

  • Volker

    I agree with the “deadly combination.” Back then, when the shuttle was still in its planning stages, somebody (I forgot who) said, that NASA tried to breed an “Egg-laying Wool-Milk-Pig” – something that could do everything. In the end, we ended up with something that could do a little bit of everything but none of it completely.

    Nevertheless, instead of being a Wool-Milk-Pig the shuttle became an incredible work horse and I doubt we would have an International Space Station without it.

    I hope the last flights will go without incident and we will keep the shuttle in good memory.

    By the way: these days, everybody hails the ultra-reliable Russian Soyuz craft. But in the beginning, we lost two Soyuz spaceships and their crews too.