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25th First Space Shuttle Flight Anniversary |
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ItÂ’s been 25 years since the first shuttle flight into space. There is some underlying nervousness about this because in the next decade NASA will most likely retire 3 of its shuttles including the aging Atlantis to prepare for huge change. The retired shuttles will be used for parts for a new breed of space shuttle as well as to keep the older shuttles flying. NASA hopes to have the new shuttles in space by 2014 and to the Moon and Mars by the year 2018.Along with the shift the way NASA operates will have to change as well, including how the astronauts are trained. Astronauts will have to learn how to fly a completely different vehicle that will allow them to extract oxygen from the moonÂ’s soil. They will also learn how to grow plants and conduct various geological tests on the moonÂ’s surface. The shuttle will hold 6 astronauts in one rocket, which makes the shuttle a lot more versatile.
There are critics that disagree with the changeover. “The new crew exploration vehicle will come in late, over cost and under spent and it will stress the agency to get it to function according to plan,” said Duke historian Alex Roland, a persistent NASA critic who worked for the space agency in the 1970s. “It will under perform. It will be just a shadow of what they promised and by the time it’s done, critics like me will ask ’What’s the payoff in the investment?”
The change is estimated to take up more than a fifth of the $16.8 million budget for next year.
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