Nasa Chief says shuttle schedule unrealistic

[Madame Butterfly 0]

NASA Chief Says Schedule for Shuttles Is Unrealistic

 

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By WARREN LEARY and JOHN SCHWARTZ

Published: June 17, 2005

WASHINGTON, June 16 - Dr. Michael D. Griffin, the new administrator of NASA, said Thursday that there was no way the space shuttle fleet would be able to complete the 28 flights now planned before its retirement in 2010.

 

A reduced schedule will lead to significant changes in how the International Space Station is assembled and supplied, he said. The station depends largely on the shuttle fleet to ferry equipment, supplies and crew members, but the shuttles have been grounded since the loss of the Columbia and its crew in February 2003.

 

While the space agency is still studying how many missions the shuttles can undertake once they resume flight, as early as next month, Dr. Griffin said there could be as few as 15 and no more than 23, because of the time it takes to process and fly missions.

 

"I'll be very strong on this," he said in an interview.

 

Study groups at NASA are looking into alternatives for assembling the station, the shuttle's main job, and will consult with the White House before presenting details to the other partners in the station project, including Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada.

 

Dr. Griffin, who assumed his post at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration only two months ago, acknowledged that in the past the United States had been accused of making important decisions itself as managing partner in the project and then announcing them to the other partners. During meetings this week at the Paris Air Show, he said, station partners were told they would be consulted once the station-assembly alternatives were vetted by the Bush administration.

 

"No decision will be made until we've had a chance to discuss options with them," he said. But he continued: "I can't discuss options with them before those options have been aired with my boss. And they understand that. They have the same constraints as me."

 

Dr. Griffin has been acting rapidly to reshape the upper management of the space program, and letters have gone out to dozens of officials telling them that they will be reassigned or will have the option of leaving NASA.

 

The first to announce that he would leave was Rear Adm. Craig E. Steidle, who led efforts to develop the next-generation crewed space vehicle; he made his resignation public last week. The Aerospace Industries Association, a trade group, announced on Thursday that he would join it as vice president for international affairs.

 

William F. Readdy, who heads spaceflight operations, told co-workers in an e-mail message on Monday that he would stay on through the shuttle's return to flight and then decide whether to take a new job within NASA or to retire.

 

Alphonzo V. Diaz, the agency's associate administrator for science, said in a memorandum to colleagues on Monday that he would retire "in the next several months." J. Victor Lebacqz, NASA's associate administrator for aeronautics research, announced his departure on Tuesday.

 

In his interview, Dr. Griffin declined to comment "on what I might do on the organizational wiring diagram" but said he was hoping to build a team of officials with "expertise, energy, integrity, the ability to see and to grasp the big picture" and to "work well with others."

 

Dr. Griffin said he had a tendency to make quick decisions, and he said that this sometimes put people off. So he said he has tried to surround himself with a politically sensitive team, "which by design does not allow me to make the quick decisions that I am prone to."

 

He also said he wanted people "who are willing to stand up to me."

 

"I don't want to issue edicts that people salute, say, 'Yes, sir!' and go off and implement."

 

Dr. Griffin repeated his goal of having a replacement for the shuttle ready shortly after its retirement, instead of allowing a gap of four to five years, as previously planned, before the nation could send astronauts to the space station or the Moon. The United States will develop this vehicle alone to assure that the nation has "unfettered, independent access to space," he said.

[HRH The KING 0]

Overscheduling the space shuttle is a disasterous thing to do.

 

It was a major factor in Challenger's destruction.

 

I guess NASA still haven't learned their lesson.

 

Is it going to take another shuttle disaster before they finally understand?

 

So, again another seven people head out on yet another pointless space shuttle mission.

 

Interestingly enough, a friend of mine runs an "online" newspaper type website, and only yesterday I wrote an article that will be published tomorrow on his site which is a scathing critique on the space shuttle system and indeed the space program in general.