Planned Obsolescence? Space Shuttle Program Winding Down

Sept. 20, 2006 — -- As the Space Shuttle Atlantis returns to Earth in the next day or so, every astronaut and much of the aerospace community is going to be distracted by the fact that the shuttle program is ending -- something the average American may not realize.

In fact, Atlantis and its remaining sister ships Discovery and Endeavor are scheduled to be parked for good by 2010, if not before.

The problem is that once they retire, the United States will have no way for several years to boost astronauts into low Earth orbit.

That glaring deficiency will change a few more years down the road when NASA's new combination system, to boost astronauts and heavy hardware using separate vehicles, comes into being (hopefully by 2014).

But the retirement of the shuttle fleet means an interim dependence on the Russian space program and a dangerous invitation to forget how and why the shuttle program failed to reach its intended goal in the first place.

It's true that the shuttle is an amazing design that can handle incredibly complex technical challenges.

But the fact that the shuttle fleet could have been so much better is a major, cautionary tale we absolutely must not forget or repeat.

The pivotal year was 1970, and even in the heady aftermath of the successful moon landings and the stunning abilities NASA had displayed with the Apollo program, Congress made it clear that the days of unlimited financial support for massive aerospace programs had come to an end.

In fact, convincing lawmakers to part with billions for manned spaceflight was clearly going to be a major uphill battle, given the beady-eyed, penurious congressional attitude that was forcing even the mighty NASA to dance for its dinner with every budget.

For one thing, NASA had been unceremoniously told by congressional leaders to forget about building a space station, even if the concept of building a reusable space "truck" still had a chance on the hill.

The key to gaining lawmakers' support, however, rested in designing something that could be all things to all people -- a manned spacecraft that could perform every mission the military and the civil sector might require, especially when it came to launching satellites for the intelligence community.