NASA Tired of Hitching Rides with the Russians
NASA Tired of Hitching Rides with the Russians by Teresita Blanco Two days ago, the NASA’s Chief Administrator Charles Borten visit...
http://phistars.blogspot.com/2015/08/nasa-tired-of-hitching-rides-with.html
NASA Tired of Hitching Rides with the Russians
by Teresita Blanco
Two days ago, the NASA’s Chief Administrator Charles Borten visited Congress with a complaint. Due to budget cuts, the US astronauts had to rely on the Russians to get to space. This problem has been going on for quite some time. To save fuel, the US pays for a seat in all Russian shuttles.
The US astronauts usually travel in the Soyuz shuttle. Aside from astronauts, the shuttle sends supplies to the International Space Station. The White House stopped funding the Space Shuttle program after the Colombia disaster of 2004. The final launch was in 2011.
Instead of the Space Shuttle, NASA plans to use the Orion Spacecraft for long missions. Orion is a deep space capsule. Its purpose is to send humans to Mars. It seems for now; it will be used for more mundane trips around Earth’s orbit. The spaceships will be used for private trips.
Borten wants Congress to fund the Commercial Crew program. This program would allow private companies to send astronauts to space from the US. Just recently, NASA had to pay $490 million to the Russian to send astronauts to space.
The heart of the matter lies in Borten’s desire to invest US money in US soil. Then again, for Congress it’s a lot cheaper to outsource their space program to Russia. It might not be feasible to convince Congress of reinvesting in NASA.
