Loss of Shuttle Throws Future of Space Station Into Doubt

Los Angeles Times ^ | February 3 2003 | By Peter Pae, Ralph Vartabedian and Usha Lee McFarling

[Kay Soze]

The loss of the space shuttle Columbia and the potential long-term grounding of the rest of the fleet could doom the partially completed International Space Station, the most expensive engineering endeavor in history and the heart of NASA's efforts to send humans into the cosmos.

The $100 billion project relies solely on the shuttle fleet to ferry the tons of parts-- trusses, solar panels, lab modules and dorm rooms-- needed to complete the project. The three remaining space shuttles are the only vehicles large enough to carry construction parts to the lab orbiting 240 miles above Earth.

"The space station and the space shuttle are twins joined at the hips. Anything that goes wrong with one affects the other," said Howard McCurdy, a space policy expert at American University.

[Kay Soze]

To Comply with posting of LA Times articles I have posted less than 5% of the enitre article.

[John Jamieson]

"The three remaining space shuttles are the only vehicles large enough to carry construction parts to the lab"

I doubt that, the Titan IV can do it. Men are the real problem. No other US human transport.

Columbia was not used to service or build the ISS. It might be able to reach it, but only with very light payloads.

I'm expecting a fairly short downtime, much less than the 32 months last time.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

They've flown modules up to the ISS with Russian Proton rockets before; ~23 tons to LEO.