Free Republic

<p>Two leading members of the House Science Committee are urging NASA to defer its developing space plane program because of concerns about cost and the potential benefit of the craft.</p> <p>NASA hopes to have the so-called Orbital Space Plane launched to the international space station by 2008, to serve at least initially as a lifeboat.</p>

The field of likely bidders to build the Orbital Space Plane is about to shrink from three to two, according to industry sources. Northrop Grumman is dropping plans to bid for the Orbital Space Plane prime contract and has entered discussions with Lockheed Martin Corp. about a teaming arrangement on the program, industry sources said. Such a move essentially would pit the Lockheed Martin-Northrop Grumman team against Boeing Co. for the multibillion-dollar contract. What this would mean for Northrop Grumman’s current Orbital Space Plane partner, Orbital Sciences Corp., is not immediately clear. Orbital Sciences spokesman Barron Beneski could not be...

Op Ed by Don Peterson, Former Astronaut Tuesday, September 23, 2003 I was disappointed by NASA's latest plan for the enhancement of human space flight as described in an article on page 4A in the Houston Chronicle on Monday, September 1st, 2003 titled "NASA racing to complete light craft for space trips." The article stated, "In just five years astronauts may journey to the space station (the International Space Station or ISS) in a stripped down four-seater instead of the mammoth - and aging - space shuttle." The article states that NASA has budgeted 2.4 billion dollars for the craft...

No shuttle replacements seen for a decade 5 February 2003 01:40 By Chris Stetkiewicz SEATTLE, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Aviation experts believe NASA will not replace the lost space shuttle Columbia for about 10 years, sticking to a schedule that may force the agency to rely more on Russia to supply the International Space Station. Building a replica shuttle would be too costly, leaving a next-generation "orbital space plane" due to enter service around 2010 as the earliest possible relief for the remaining three shuttles, which could keep flying for decades to come, according to experts advising NASA and the...