WASHINGTON: The US space shuttle fleet can go on flying beyond NASA’s September 30 deadline if the capital is made available to keep it going, a US space agency official told reporters on Tuesday.
“I think the real issue that the agency and the nation has to address is the expense,” said John Shannon, the Space Shuttle Program Manager, noting the shuttle fleet costs the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 200 million dollars for every month to maintain it in working condition.
“Where that money comes from is the big question,” John Shannon added.
John Shannon briefing was about NASA’s April 5 Discovery mission to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS), 1 of 3 shuttle flights remaining before the program is shut down at the conclusion of September after 29 years of service.
Several lawmakers have lately urged the shuttle program be extended to reduce US dependency on Russia’s Soyuz spacecrafts in order to go on building the ISS until the shuttle’s successor can take off by 2015 at the earliest.
Taking up her colleagues’ concerns, Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison very last week presented a bill calling for extending the shuttle program further than its termination deadline.
On presenting his 2011 budget plan in January, US President Barack Obama make sure that the shuttle fleet’s demise this year, and dropping the Constellation program his predecessor George W. Bush announced in the year 2004 to return Americans to the moon by 2020.
Constellation integrated the development of the Ares 1 rocket, and its abandonment has also put into question the viability of the shuttle’s successor spacecraft.
Barack Obama also asked NASA to partner with the private sector, using funds from an economic stimulus package to develop low-cost, primary services transporting astronauts to the ISS.
“I think the real issue that the agency and the nation has to address is the expense,” said John Shannon, the Space Shuttle Program Manager, noting the shuttle fleet costs the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 200 million dollars for every month to maintain it in working condition.
“Where that money comes from is the big question,” John Shannon added.
John Shannon briefing was about NASA’s April 5 Discovery mission to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS), 1 of 3 shuttle flights remaining before the program is shut down at the conclusion of September after 29 years of service.
Several lawmakers have lately urged the shuttle program be extended to reduce US dependency on Russia’s Soyuz spacecrafts in order to go on building the ISS until the shuttle’s successor can take off by 2015 at the earliest.
Taking up her colleagues’ concerns, Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison very last week presented a bill calling for extending the shuttle program further than its termination deadline.
On presenting his 2011 budget plan in January, US President Barack Obama make sure that the shuttle fleet’s demise this year, and dropping the Constellation program his predecessor George W. Bush announced in the year 2004 to return Americans to the moon by 2020.
Constellation integrated the development of the Ares 1 rocket, and its abandonment has also put into question the viability of the shuttle’s successor spacecraft.
Barack Obama also asked NASA to partner with the private sector, using funds from an economic stimulus package to develop low-cost, primary services transporting astronauts to the ISS.
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