30 billion dimes

30 billion dimes

The Planetary Society has issued a scathing statement on NASA's budget:

The proposed budget directs three billion dollars (over five years) away from robotic exploration of the solar system to continue to operate the shuttle. Last year the Administrator said, "not one thin dime" would be so directed. Now we learn it is 30 billion dimes.

...

But the biggest danger to the Vision for Space Exploration is not the removal of a few exploration missions from NASA's budget, but the commitment made in the budget for 17 shuttle flights. The average number of shuttle launches per year of the space shuttle over its lifetime is less than five. This was with 4-5 orbiters. Now that the country is down to only three orbiters (and soon, just one launch pad) on a system with far more safety concerns and scrutiny, how can we expect the number to be larger? Three or four is a more reasonable expectation -- meaning that if all goes well and there are no more accidents or gaps in readiness for flight, the 17 flights might be accomplished in 4 to 6 years.

That takes us beyond 2010, and leads to more expenditures and hence more delays in the transition to new launch vehicles and a new human space flight program beyond Earth orbit. In fact we would predict that the likely outcome is another decade or more for humans stuck in low Earth orbit.

We don't have to cite our anxieties about the dangers of extending shuttle lifetime, and the delays of implementing the new Vision program. The proposed budget itself states that the CEV may not be ready until 2014, and that NASA is only hoping that some synergies and new providers will be found to enable readiness two years (not four) earlier. Hope is not a good planning tool.

It's time to end the Shuttle Program. The horse has two broken legs: time to put it out of its misery.

(hat tip to Space Politics)

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