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07/08/11(Fri)11:50 No.3355261President
Barack Obama announced changes to NASA space policy, in his April 15,
2010 space policy speech at Kennedy Space Center, from the Moon-first
approach adopted previously under the Vision for Space Exploration and
Constellation program to a variety of destinations resembling the
flexible path approach.
The new plan calls for NASA to extend the
life of the ISS by five years and use launch vehicles designed,
manufactured, and operated by private aerospace companies with NASA
paying for flights for government astronauts to the ISS and LEO, much
like the way private space tourism company Space Adventures bought Soyuz
flights from the Russian government for space tourists. Boeing and
Lockheed Martin have expressed doubts about the new plan,[57] while
other aerospace companies, including SpaceX, have strongly endorsed it.
NASA
has selected SpaceX and Orbital Sciences for its Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services (COTS) program. The first launch of SpaceX's
Falcon 9 occurred on December 8, 2010;[58] it was the unmanned first
spaceflight of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which orbited the Earth. It
was the first demonstration flight for the COTS program. On February 8
the idea for a new rocket to replace the aging space shuttle was
presented in the form of the Liberty. Mostly a combination of the
already existing Ariane 5 and the canceled Ares I; it is thought that it
could be finished by 2013, and ready for launch by 2015 if
approved.[59]
With the end of the Space Shuttle program after the
last Space Shuttle Atlantis mission in July 2011, NASA's 1,100
full-time employees on the Shuttle program will be transferred to other
NASA programs. However, contractor employees are not promised work with
NASA. Contractor employment on the Space Shuttle program has dropped
drastically from 14,000 to around 5,000 over the last five years.[60] |
