Re: Is 2010 shuttle end written in stone?

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 16:49:20 GMT, Brian Thorn <bthorn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:30:35 -0500, "Jorge R. Frank"
<jrfrank@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Brian Thorn wrote:
On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 18:13:44 -0500, JD in TX <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

I know the shuttle program is scheduled to end in 2010. Is this date
flexible at all? For example, if further delays cause the space station
construction to slip, could the shuttle program be extended for another
year or is there some absolute reason it needs to stop in 2010?

Yes, but they'd have to make the decision soon, and it would require
the President's okay to ignore the Columbia Accident Investigation
Board's recommendations (that's where 2010 came from.)

Careful there. CAIB R9.2-1 didn't recommend *retirement* by 2010, it
recommended *recertification*.

True, but it is now essentially impossible to complete recert before
2010 (with the possible exception of Atlantis) so the President would
have to waive the CAIB recommendation, regardless.

Now that orbiter retirement is virtually a foregone
conclusion, due to the termination of subcontracts after the delivery of
hardware needed to fly out the current manifest, it makes sense to relax
the 2010 deadline in order to fly out the current manifest, as long as
no new flights are added.

The danger there is that NASA would reinstate all the MPLM flights it
cancelled in 2004. No new flights added, just old ones put back in
once 2010 is waived.

Brian
__
Hate to proclaim my ignorance but what is MPLM? And how many flights?
Thanks
--

Jim in Houston
NoSpAmjamesgoodrum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nurse's creed: Fill what's empty, empty what's full,
and scratch where it itches!! RN does NOT mean Real Nerd!

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