In passing the 2005 NASA authorization act (P.L. 109-105), Congress basically agreed with the President's plan for directing NASA's attention to a return to the Moon and manned missions to Mars. Included in the Moon-Mars 'Vision' is the plan to end flights of the Space Shuttle in 2010, and restriction of U.S. experiments on the ISS mostly to those that forward the goal Moon-Mars goal. A number of critical questions remain, however. 1. Adequacy of funding is the chief question raised about NASA's activities. In presenting the Moon-Mars vision, the President did not request significantly increased money for NASA, despite chronic indications that the missions it was already charged with were underfunded. NASA has responded to the new mission by cutting back funding for its other activities, primarily in scientific research and aeronautics. 2. Although Discovery's 'Return to Flight' mission of July 2006 was a success, the ability of the shuttle fleet to carry out enough flights to complete construction of the ISS by 2010 is still in question. With a history of more than a hundred successful missions, it might be assumed that another 15 or so would be considered more or less routine, but instead, each launch is still a major and risky event. The great complexity of the vehicle and the extreme environment in which it operates require constant attention to possible accidents and malfunctions, many of which must be addressed on an ad hoc basis. The future role of the ISS is also unclear. Assuming that enough shuttle flights are made to carry out 'core completion' of the station by 2010, it is not clear what will be done with the ISS after that. In particular, there will be a gap of several years between retirement of the shuttle in 2010 and beginning of flight of the Crew Exploration Vehicle, to be designed for the return to the moon but able to serve as a vehicle to reach the ISS.


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    Title :

    International Space Station and the Space Shuttle


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    2009


    Size :

    12 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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