The Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch from Cape Kennedy in February to begin its final journey into space. The mission, the 133rd of the Shuttle fleet, is one of only three remaining flights in a program that has spanned three decades and sent over 300 humans into space. Since 1981, five Space Shuttle Orbiters have carried communications, defense and scientific satellites into space, acted as orbiting laboratories for scientific, medical and technological research and have been posts for observing Earth weather patterns as well as climate and ecological changes. Space shuttles have brought the Hubble telescope to orbit, built the International Space Station (ISS) and helped humans learn to live and work in the harshest and most unforgiving environment they have ever faced.
A presidential mandate in 2004, following the disintegration of Columbia, instructed NASA to retire the Shuttle by 2010 and begin work on a program to send humans back to the moon. NASA developed Project Constellation and successfully test-launched the new Ares rocket in October 2009. Unfortunately, President George W. Bush failed to provide the funding needed to reach the goals he had set. When President Obama and the Augustine Commission reviewed the Bush plans, they considered them unfeasible under the current NASA budget. Rather than providing the funding necessary, however, Obama canceled Constellation and sent NASA in a "New Direction" wherein private companies would begin developing the next generation earth-orbit launch vehicle, allowing NASA to focus on designing more advanced spacecraft to reach deep space.
The Obama plan faced much criticism because of its vague and distant goals and reliance on foreign nations to send humans to the ISS. Many NASA employees, past and present, expressed concerns that the private sector is not advanced enough to conduct spaceflight operations yet. Some astronauts who have come out in support of the plan — most notably Buzz Aldrin, who, along with Neil Armstrong, became one of the first men to land on the moon in 1969 — have emphasized its importance to the private sector as a driving force for American business and ingenuity.
Recent attempts in Congress to alter the "New Direction" plan, combined with the results of the 2010-midterm elections, leave the future of American spaceflight very much in question. Recent successes in the private spaceflight sector show some hope for this plan, but without any specific goals and far too much reliance on a new industry, NASA is on thin ice. For the first time in American history, we will be ending a manned space program without having one to take its place. At this crucial turning point, it is important to look back at the Shuttle and the programs before it, to honor their contributions to this nation and the world and to emphasize the importance of scientific discovery, research and exploration to humanity. All this is best expressed through the words of the select few who have traveled beyond our planet.
A presidential mandate in 2004, following the disintegration of Columbia, instructed NASA to retire the Shuttle by 2010 and begin work on a program to send humans back to the moon. NASA developed Project Constellation and successfully test-launched the new Ares rocket in October 2009. Unfortunately, President George W. Bush failed to provide the funding needed to reach the goals he had set. When President Obama and the Augustine Commission reviewed the Bush plans, they considered them unfeasible under the current NASA budget. Rather than providing the funding necessary, however, Obama canceled Constellation and sent NASA in a "New Direction" wherein private companies would begin developing the next generation earth-orbit launch vehicle, allowing NASA to focus on designing more advanced spacecraft to reach deep space.
The Obama plan faced much criticism because of its vague and distant goals and reliance on foreign nations to send humans to the ISS. Many NASA employees, past and present, expressed concerns that the private sector is not advanced enough to conduct spaceflight operations yet. Some astronauts who have come out in support of the plan — most notably Buzz Aldrin, who, along with Neil Armstrong, became one of the first men to land on the moon in 1969 — have emphasized its importance to the private sector as a driving force for American business and ingenuity.
Recent attempts in Congress to alter the "New Direction" plan, combined with the results of the 2010-midterm elections, leave the future of American spaceflight very much in question. Recent successes in the private spaceflight sector show some hope for this plan, but without any specific goals and far too much reliance on a new industry, NASA is on thin ice. For the first time in American history, we will be ending a manned space program without having one to take its place. At this crucial turning point, it is important to look back at the Shuttle and the programs before it, to honor their contributions to this nation and the world and to emphasize the importance of scientific discovery, research and exploration to humanity. All this is best expressed through the words of the select few who have traveled beyond our planet.
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