As the era of the Space Shuttle draws to a close, uncertainty hangs over the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) like the pall of smoke after a launch. Only eight more Shuttle flights are planned, to complete the construction of the International Space Station (ISS). After that, there will be a five-year hiatus before the next U.S. astronauts fly from the KSC–on the Ares launch system that is reminiscent of the Saturn/ Apollo era. Meanwhile, former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine is leading a high-level independent review into Project Constellation, the ambitious plan for manned space flight to earth orbit and then to the Moon and beyond that was set by the previous Administration.
Many workers at the KSC would be happy if the review granted a reprieve to the Space Shuttle. “I am amazed that it’s being retired before the replacement is available,” one veteran manager told AIN at the KSC last month. As things stand, the U.S. will rely on Russian Soyuz boosters to fly astronauts to the ISS until 2015. Meanwhile, NASA will rely on commercially developed launchers from Orbital Sciences Corp. and SpaceX for routine unmanned resupply flights to the ISS.
