Nasa Chief Says He Can't Promise Space Station

[Madame Butterfly 0]

NASA Chief Says He Can't Promise to Finish Space Station

 

By Traci Watson and Dan Vergano, USA TODAY

 

WASHINGTON - The new chief of NASA on Tuesday threw further doubt on the future of the International Space Station, saying he couldn't promise that all the pieces needed to complete the orbiting laboratory would make it to space.

 

 

 

In an interview with USA TODAY, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said an agency team is still studying what the space station will ultimately look like. Until the team finishes its work this summer, he said, he couldn't be sure which pieces of the station might be left on the ground, including those already scheduled to fly on future shuttle missions.

 

"We're trying to develop a station plan," Griffin said. "We don't have it yet."

 

The space station, which now serves as a home to one Russian and one American, has been more than 20 years in the making. The United States and 15 other nations share the $100 billion cost, but the station has long generated controversy in the USA as its cost grew and its purpose changed. Congress nearly killed it in 1993.

 

Four planned shuttle flights are supposed to carry large pieces of the space station, including solar panels and scaffolding, into orbit. NASA has even announced crews for the four flights.

 

"The flights will fly," Griffin said. "What piece of hardware goes on what flight is what's up for grabs."

 

NASA had planned at least 28 more shuttle flights to the station: 18 to finish building it and 10 to provide supplies or support research. President Bush declared last year that the shuttle would retire in 2010, limiting the number of flights. His decision was triggered, in part, by the disintegration of the shuttle Columbia in 2003.

 

As a result of Bush's decision, the 28-flight plan "won't work," Griffin said. "So we need a new plan, and we're trying to develop it."

 

 

 

Only the shuttle can haul pieces of the station into orbit. Cutting back the number of shuttle flights will make it difficult, if not impossible, to finish the station.

 

Legislation introduced Tuesday by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, would require NASA to complete the space station.

 

Griffin offered a sober assessment of the challenges NASA faces, saying America's space program has "fallen behind."

 

"Our shuttle is grounded. Two nations have flown people in space since we last did it," Griffin said. "We're at least five years away from having a replacement vehicle. ... We (at NASA) and America need to work hard to regain our pre-eminence in space."