Frontier Foundation: "Scuttle the Shuttle"
- From: davida@xxxxxxx
- Date: 29 Jun 2006 11:37:24 -0700
Los Angeles, CA, June 29, 2006 - Scuttle the Shuttle! This phrase,
first used years ago by the Space Frontier Foundation, is being heard
again, as the Foundation calls for NASA to end the expensive, dead-end
Space Shuttle program immediately. The Foundation believes the
approximately 20 billion dollars this would save between now and 2010
(when NASA has announced the program will end) should instead be used
to kick-start a commercial LEO economy based on private facilities,
satellite servicing, energy and resource development and other
industries - in the end creating far more jobs and economic activity
than the Shuttle program.
"We have said it before, and we will say it again. It is time to step
out of the past and into the future of space transportation. The
Shuttle is a dead end, carrying payloads to finish a space station that
NASA plans to bail out of in a few years anyway," stated Rick Tumlinson
of the Foundation. "The billions now being wasted should be used to
catalyze a NewSpace transportation market that could carry both
government explorers and regular people at a fraction of what we are
spending today. It is time for NASA to learn to buy the ride, not the
rocket!"
The Space Shuttle program consumes approximately five billion dollars a
year whether or not it flies a single mission. Most of these funds go
to support the so-called "standing army" of NASA and aerospace
employees dependent on the Shuttle for their jobs. If all goes
according to plan, twenty billion dollars will be spent between now and
the last Shuttle flight. Meanwhile, NASA's much-ballyhooed Commercial
Orbital Transportation Systems (COTS) project meant to create a new and
varied humans-to-space transportation industry using the space station
as a customer is spending only $500 million to spark the development of
new low-cost systems with none at all allocated to purchase rides.
"We are spending the same amount of money every six weeks to not fly
Space Shuttles as we are investing in the entire NewSpace industry. We
are mortgaging our future while starving these incredibly talented and
promising new companies and ideas, all to sustain a system that has
completely failed," Tumlinson said. "It is time to get the U.S.
government out of the 'Earth to space transportation market'. They
may have pioneered it, but they are incapable of operating efficiently
there - and it's not their job. Let's give the NewSpace companies,
like those who have stepped up to offer their rocket ships in the COTS
program, a real shot."
The Foundation points to the COTS program as an example of NASA doing
the right thing, and wants to see it greatly expanded. The group is
also calling for the U.S. government to offer basic payload delivery
contracts to multiple firms as a means of kick-starting a new space
economy, much like airmail contracts were used to help the early
airline industry. And it sees all players, old and new, participating
in this market.
"We can waste the taxpayer's money propping up old systems, or we can
invest that money to create new ones that promise far larger returns
for the nation, in terms of jobs, wealth and exploration," Tumlinson
continued. "The current approach stifles innovation and opportunity for
NewSpace and old aerospace firms alike."
He concluded: "As Commander Steve Lindsey and his crew blast off into
space, they carry our hopes, dreams and prayers. Let's make their
heroism stand for something more than a few thousand
government-supported jobs in the right Congressional districts. Let's
build something we can all be proud of - an expanding frontier in
space."
-30-
The Space Frontier Foundation is an organization of people dedicated to
opening the Space Frontier to human settlement as rapidly as possible.
Our goals include protecting the Earth's fragile biosphere and creating
a freer and more prosperous life for each generation by using the
unlimited energy and material resources of space. Our purpose is to
unleash the power of free enterprise and lead a united humanity
permanently into the Solar System.
www.space-frontier.org
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