COLORADO SPRINGS — NASA officials are preparing to cope with a roughly four-year gap between the retirement of the space shuttle and the launch of its successor, the Orion crew exploration vehicle, for manned flights.
Jefferson County-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems is developing Orion under a contract it won in 2006. NASA plans to use Orion to take astronauts to the international space station, to return to the moon and eventually to go to Mars and beyond. The goals are part of a vision outlined by President Bush in 2004.
The current plan calls for the retirement of the space shuttle in 2010 and manned flights on Orion starting as late as 2015.
“It’s not acceptable at all. It’s just the reality of the situation,” NASA associate administrator Chris Scolese said during a panel discussion at the National Space Symposium, a gathering of more than 7,000 space-industry professionals at The Broadmoor this week. “We’re going to do everything possible to minimize the gap.”
NASA may be able to speed up the launch of Orion for manned flights to 2013 and is hoping for more funding for such an acceleration. However, it has been unable to get such support, particularly as Congress faces many competing needs for federal funding.
Boeing NASA systems vice president Brewster Shaw said that with additional funding, Boeing could support NASA in limited use of the shuttle during the gap, “but it would have to be something that NASA would want to have happen.”
While the development of commercial space transport to the space station by U.S. companies is a possibility, “we can’t be overly optimistic,” said NASA exploration-systems associate administrator Richard Gilbrech.
Therefore, NASA plans to be able to rely on Russia for transport to the space station during the gap.
Kennedy Space Center director William Parsons Jr. acknowledged the gap will also mean a loss of talent.
Employees there “know what’s going on, and they’re concerned,” Parsons said.
Industry experts have said any job losses associated with the retirement of the space shuttle will probably be concentrated in the communities around the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Kelly Yamanouchi: 303-954-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost
