Shuttle..?

Hi all,

as where all aware the launch of STS-122 Atlantis has been put yet again till 24th January over a faulty fuel sensor. The connector is on the external tank and allows sensors, called engine cutoff sensors, inside the tank to send data to the computers that control the space shuttle's three main engines. Im wondering as the shuttle nears the end of its life isit becoming unsafe?

Are budgets cuts affecting the shuttle?

Proposed replacements as the X-33 are unlikly i think and as it costs $600million to lanch the shuttle each time nasa are running outta time and money an the down turn in the shuttle been used as transport for companies satellites because of its unrealibilty its hard to see manned missions to the moon & mars in short/long term

The russian soyuz its way cheaper but has a small payload which in turn with the shuttle is delaying the completion of the ISS

just wondering other peoples thoughts on the next 50years in space transport & technology

Isnt the shuttle program gonna be shut down in 2010?

Surely they have a back up craft already.

Personally i feel the shuttle is well past it's sell by date...........and should be decommissioned now rather then later. How many more people can die as a result in the next couple of years?...........too many.

The thing is falling to pieces slowly but surely.

I aint shure of the exact date the program will be shut down id say it will varie pending on replacement...nasa them selfs admit it to be unsafe and unrealibile plus constant trouble with tile damage at launch time

ya know do theyl say the usual space travel is dangerous and that but im wondering if you had the chance would you take a ride!

Irish author, Brian Harvey, just published his latest book on just this topic! I think it was reviewed in Sky&Telescope this or last month (can't remember the book's title.) The book is a round up of all the past and current star trollies and most of those currently on the drawing board... of which quite a few won't get an closer to space!

A Google or Amazon search for "Brian Harvey" should turn it up.

Phil.

Hell yeah i'd jump at the chance to take a spin in it. Now if only i had $20 million to cover the cost.

i think the future of Space travel lies not with Governments fighting over who gets to the next milestone, but popular money-making pioneers like Richard Branson and Steve Fosset , ie privately funded.

As much as id like to see the money going into it, i think a lot of people find it hard to stomach let alone understand the billions spent on going up. When the nature of the business changes and people see it as the next frontier, the new horizon, i think the money will pour in. Events like the successful launching of 'Space One' can only help the cause.

The USA dosent have the willpower to forge ahead ; there was a time when we thought Mars would be reached soon enough. (seems like a distant fantasy now). The Cold War fueled the initial race, with Russia no longer a player the money in the states is no longer available (witness the frequent cuts to the space program and the constant "why do we go up anymore? weve already been to the moon" )

Then again, China is beating their chest and sending their Taikonauts up - there may yet be a race in it.