Space Shuttle Program Hits a Bittersweet end
Jumat, 08 Juli 2011 by Android Blackberry
NASA Fuels Shuttle Atlantis for Historic Last Launch.
For tens of thousands of past and present shuttle workers, such as extra than 3,000 expecting layoffs July 22, the classic "wheels stopped" call when the space shuttle Atlantis returns to Earth will signal the end of an era.
Atlantis is scheduled to take off at 11:26 a.m. ET nowadays, weather permitting, on NASA's final shuttle mission right after three decades and far more than 130 flights, having a landing at the Kennedy Space Center set for July 20.
"After the wheels have stopped plus the displays go blank plus the orbiter is unpowered for the final time...there is going to be a rush of emotion when we all finally recognize that is it, that it is all over, the crowning jewel of our space program, the way we got back and forth from low-Earth orbit for 30 years...we'll understand that is all over," said shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson. "That's going to take somewhat when to deal with it."
Atlantis' landing will come seven-and-a-half years immediately after President Bush, responding to the 2003 Columbia disaster, ordered NASA to total the International Space Station and retire the space shuttle fleet by the end of the decade.
When all was stated and done, the final two shuttle missions slipped into the very first half of 2011 and a third flight, with Atlantis, was added to the manifest to deliver a final load of supplies to the space station.
The Bush administration's strategy was to get rid of the costly shuttle program--and the thousands of contractor jobs that created it so expensive--and use the savings to assist pay for a new program, developing safer, lower-cost rockets necessary to support the establishment of Antarctica-style bases on the moon by around 2020.
But Bush never totally funded his Constellation moon program--he barely mentioned it following the initial 2004 announcement at NASA headquarters--and the Obama administration decided in 2009 that it was just too costly.
Writing off practically $10 billion spent on initial style and development of the Constellation moon program rockets and infrastructure, President Obama settled on a controversial new plan that marked a drastic alter naturally for NASA.
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| Space shuttle Atlantis stands at launch pad 39A as a cargo canister is lifted into a payload changeout room. |
The so-called "flexible path" approach calls for the near-term development of private-sector spaceships to ferry astronauts to and from the space station on a for-profit basis although NASA focuses on designing new, a lot more inexpensive rockets and spacecraft for eventual voyages to nearby asteroids, the moons of Mars, or even the red planet itself.
"By investing in groundbreaking analysis and innovative corporations, we have the possible to rapidly transform our capabilities...for future missions," Obama said throughout a visit to the Kennedy Space Center in 2010. "And in contrast to the previous program, we are setting a course with certain and achievable milestones.
"Early inside the next decade, a set of crewed flights will test and prove the systems needed for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. And by 2025, we anticipate new spacecraft designed for lengthy journeys to enable us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the moon into deep space. We'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow. And I anticipate to be around to see it."
But those flights are small a lot more than long-range dreams at this point. The heavy-lift rocket necessary to increase such missions into deep space has not yet been created and test flights are years away as are initial flights of commercial manned spacecraft intended to service the space station.
Within the near term, for the subsequent four to six years, U.S. astronauts and their international partners might be forced to hitch rides on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, at about $60 million a seat, for trips to and from the International Space Station.
"Does it bother me? I believe the transition could have taken location a bit much more gradually," Ferguson said of the Obama space policy. "I would have liked to have observed somewhat much more openness and not have it occur so suddenly. Does that mean it is the wrong factor to do? I'm definitely not sure. We had alluded to, within the past, we're seriously taking a risk. We're. And with huge risks come large rewards. This could turn out to be the savior of human spaceflight in America. I'm truly not sure, only time will tell.
"I do believe we're sort of hanging it out somewhat bit," he said. "But I'm optimistic about the future and in the interim, we have our Russian partners. They'll get us up and down, we're paying consumers, and they're good to their word."
A giant leap backward?
But reliance on NASA's former Cold War rival has been a especially bitter pill to swallow for lots of at NASA, forced to retire the most sophisticated manned spacecraft ever built before a U.S. replacement is available. Equally devastating, within the eyes of many, is the loss of manned spaceflight experience as thousands of extremely skilled aerospace jobs are eliminated.
"We are going to miss it," former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, architect of the Bush administration's moon program, said of the shuttle program. "I was, as administrator, supportive of and willing to retire the shuttle in favor of a brand new and much better method that would take us back to the moon and even beyond, but I'm not willing to retire the shuttle in favor of nothing. That, to me, doesn't appear like good national policy."
Within the near term, "we're going to have a reverse brain drain," he told CBS News. "It applied to be that individuals came from other locations and other industries to work inside the space program because of what it meant and what it was. And as it goes away, we're going to lose those people today simply because talented folks go exactly where you will discover tough complications. And that's not going to be superior for the country."
NASA's current administrator, former shuttle commander Charles Bolden, believes the new approach, unlike the Constellation moon program, is sustainable along with the appropriate path forward in an era of tight budgets and extra limited horizons.
"Some say that our final shuttle mission will mark the end of America's 50 years of dominance in human spaceflight," Bolden stated in a recent speech. "As a former astronaut and also the current NASA administrator, I choose to let you know that American leadership in space will continue for a minimum of the subsequent half-century for the reason that we have laid the foundation for success--and here at NASA, failure isn't an alternative."
There is a widely held belief amongst Apollo veterans that NASA's new marching orders are a step back. In an open letter to the president, Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, Apollo 13 commander James Lovell, and Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan stated America is on the verge of giving up its leadership in space.
"For the United States, the leading space-faring nation for nearly half a century, to be without having carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to turn out to be 1 of second or even third rate stature," they wrote. "While the president's plan envisages humans traveling away from Earth and perhaps toward Mars at some time inside the future, the lack of developed rockets and spacecraft will assure that capability will not be accessible for numerous years.
"Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation delivers, the U.S. is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity. America ought to choose if it wishes to stay a leader in space. If it does, we need to institute a program which will give us the pretty most effective chance of achieving that goal."
Layoffs loom as NASA changes course
As NASA's fortunes have waxed and waned, buffeted by political upheaval, an economic crisis and uncertain public support, the 1 constant has been the shuttle's looming retirement and also the slow but steady elimination of the program's highly skilled workforce.
In 2006, about 14,000 contractors and 1,800 civil servants worked on the shuttle program, most of them in Florida, Texas, and Alabama. Going into the Atlantis launch campaign, the contractor workforce had been decreased to five,615. Half of the remaining workers might be laid off after landing.
"Right now, we're down to those needed just for sustaining engineering and operation of the last flight, so it's about 5,500 contractor workers spread across Texas, Utah, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida," said shuttle Program Manager John Shannon. "And just a little bit under 1,200 civil servants, so we're at about 6,700 total men and women working in the shuttle program.
"The huge layoff is genuinely proper following the shuttle landing and then we will keep some men and women in Florida for down-mission processing. So on July 22, if we launch on July 8, there are going to be a considerable loss, about 3,200 contractors. You'll find other layoffs in August for all of our prime contractors along with the subs, so they are going to go into the transition-retirement, which is just the configuration of the vehicles and the dispositioning of hardware. That is under 1,000 people today total. That is exactly where we're proper now and exactly where we ought to be in a month along with a half."
When Atlantis returns to Earth later this month, hundreds of engineers, technicians, astronauts, and NASA managers is going to be standing by to welcome Atlantis and its crew property and to "share the moment" as the shuttle program comes to an end following 3 decades.
"The landing task, you might be hyper focused on finding Atlantis back safely," stated pilot Douglas Hurley. "But I'm really looking forward, immediately after they pry all 4 of us out of the orbiter, to just get down and share that moment with the folks who have literally been here since the first orbiter showed up, to be on the runway with them...and just type of share those memories."
Added space station veteran Sandra Magnus, a different of the four crew members on this final flight: "It's going to be incredibly sad. I told Fergie, I'm probably going to be crying when we land just since it's just so sad!"
"The shuttle's given so much to the country," she said. "When you appear at the distinct kinds of missions it can do, it built the space station, it is completed science missions that ranged from taking the Spacelab as much as the big radar missions we've done, it's carried out astronomy, it is accomplished biological science, supplies science and then it's done satellite deploy, repair and retrieve. It's an extraordinary legacy this vehicle has given us. And whilst we do need to retire it, it's still going to be extremely sad to see it go."
Space shuttle program hits a bittersweet end
The last few minutes before a space shuttle roars into the sky are full of excitement and anticipation, also as challenging work to make certain that all the spacecraft's systems are working correctly and are ready for liftoff.
The space shuttle Atlantis is currently positioned on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., ready for its final mission, and also the last ever flight of the agency's space shuttle program. Atlantis is slated to blast off on Friday (July 8) at 11:26 a.m. EDT (1526 GMT), if weather cooperates.
As the hours and minutes tick down to launch (as indicated by the "T-minus" mark), NASA's ground teams perform a battery of checks before giving the final "go." Here's a breakdown of some of the major milestones leading as much as the large moment
At quite a few predetermined points during the launch countdown, NASA will pause the clock as part of regular process to give the ground teams time to resolve any unexpected problems that may crop up. At the end of these "built-in holds," the countdown clock will resume unless NASA encounters any technical glitches. [How to Watch NASA's Final Space Shuttle Launch]
At the T-minus 9 minute mark, the clock will generally enter a 45-minute hold. Before this point, the NASA test director will perform a launch readiness poll of the shuttle launch team. Weather forecasts for the Cape Canaveral location will also be checked to verify that the conditions meet the agency's criteria for a secure launch.
In the course of the hold, NASA officials on consoles is going to be polled for their "go/no go" decisions. These technicians closely monitor laptop or computer displays and gauges that show the performance of the shuttle's systems at the launch pad.
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| NASA The last few minutes before a space shuttle roars into the sky are full of excitement and anticipation |
Right after the T-minus 9 minute built-in hold, the countdown will resume. The Ground Launch Sequencer (GLS), which is an automated program that controls all activity in the course of the final portion of the countdown, will assume automatic control of the countdown at the T-minus 9 minute mark. This program will continue to monitor the vehicle's parameters and are going to be able to halt the countdown if a predicament is detected. The GLS is ordinarily started at about the T-minus 45 minute mark.
At this point, the command will probably be given to retract the orbiter access arm, which is the lowermost scaffolding arm situated 147 feet (about 45 meters) above the surface of the launch pad. This structure makes it possible for people to enter the shuttle's crew compartment. The orbiter access arm remains in its extended position until seven minutes, 24 seconds just before launch to serve as an emergency escape route for the flight crew. [NASA's Space Shuttle - From Best to Bottom]
The arm, which is 65 feet (20 m) lengthy and five feet (1.5 m) wide, could be mechanically or manually repositioned in about 15 seconds if there is an emergency or contingency situation.
Barring any technical or weather concerns, the commander of the shuttle will probably be given the "go" to begin the orbiter's auxiliary power units (APU), which generate pressure for the shuttle's hydraulic method. You can find 3 separate onboard APUs, and their fuel systems are located inside the aft fuselage of the orbiter.
Once the APUs are powered up, ground teams will analyze the program, and if they detect any glitches, this could halt the countdown. At the T-minus 4 minute, 30 seconds mark, the Ground Launch Sequencer program will switch the main fuel valve heaters off. As the clock ticks down, the GLS will also perform checks of the fuel and space shuttle primary engines.
At this point, the shuttle's commander will advise his or her crewmates to close the visors of their launch and entry suits. In these final minutes leading up to launch, the Ground Launch Sequencer is still in automatic control of the countdown.
