Opportunities are on the horizon with privatization and it could be nice duty with a different view.
Dr. George C. Nield, Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation had this to say in a recent speech, (for actual article click here).
“Note that I mentioned that I am interested in regaining America’s leadership in human spaceflight. Some may question that wording. After all, aren’t we already the world leader in human spaceflight?
“Well, we may be today, but two months from now, after the Space Shuttle Atlantis completes its final mission, the United States will no longer have the capability to launch astronauts into orbit. And without the capability to do that, I think it would be a real stretch to claim international leadership. The capability “gap” that we’re about to enter will be a period of uncertain duration, but the fact that we have one at all is something that I find extremely frustrating and completely unnecessary. We’ve known for more than 7 years that we would be retiring the Space Shuttle—a remarkable vehicle, but one which has now gotten too old, too expensive, and too risky to continue to fly indefinitely. And yet we as a nation were somehow unable to be ready with a replacement system when we needed one. We could probably have a pretty spirited debate on the subject, but rather than argue about whose fault it is, or how we got into this predicament, I’d rather focus on what we can do to get out of it.
“I’d like to see a high-priority national goal to minimize the gap by fielding a low-Earth orbit crew transportation system as soon as we possibly can. How long would it take to do that? Well, we went from program start to first human flight for Project Gemini in a little over three years back in the 1960s. Knowing what we know today, don’t you think we could beat that schedule today if we really wanted to?
“It would be one thing if we had to start from scratch and design, build, and test a whole new launch vehicle. But there are at least three rockets flying successfully today, that appear to have the potential for safely carrying crewmembers – the Delta IV, the Atlas 5, and the Falcon 9. So the only thing we really need to focus on is the spacecraft. And there are a number of U.S. companies who have announced that they are ready, willing, and able to deliver such a system. NASA just selected four such companies as part of its CCDev-2 program, but there are others waiting in the wings who would love the chance to participate. By adding the requirement for a crew escape system, something that we have lived without for the last 30 years on the Space Shuttle, we have the opportunity to field a system with a significant increase in overall safety for those onboard.
“With respect to delivering cargo to the ISS, the COTS and CRS programs are scheduled to be able to provide that capability later this year, so I think we are in reasonable shape. For transporting crew though, I’m more worried. CCDev is certainly headed in the right direction, and there is a strong potential for getting to a successful conclusion eventually. But I’m concerned that we are either not going to come up with the funding that will be needed, or that we will waste time arguing about whether there really is a commercial market for crew and cargo, or whether U.S. industry is capable of successfully building and launching rockets without scores of government inspectors looking over their shoulders.
“Every day that we delay, is a day that we could have avoided outsourcing this job to the Russians, at $62 million per seat, and instead helping U.S. companies to develop an alternative using American ingenuity, with American jobs, American technologies, and American capabilities, something that will benefit our economy, our national security, our industrial base, and our desire for international leadership.
“Speaking for the FAA, we want to do everything we can to support our partners at NASA, and to work closely with industry, to enable these commercial space missions to be both safe and successful. So let’s get on with it!”
From my perspective, looking back a few years, I had always hoped to do a cockpit enroute inspection in low earth orbit before I retired.
Cheers,
Jim
