Earlier in the year, NASA announced plans for what it is planned to be the final space shuttle mission: a June “extra” flight by space shuttle Atlantis to deliver one last load of components to the International Space Station (ISS). Now, even as NASA is planning its “last” shuttle mission, there is an outside chance that the shuttles could fly far into the future, as long as into 2017? Sound fantastic? Well, it just may become a reality.
Last year, NASA opened the door for assistance to private space exploration forms seeking to build space vehicles. One proposal by United Space Alliance (USA) suggested continued flights of NASA's newest 2 surviving shuttles, Atlantis and Endeavor, under the control of USA instead of NASA under a program called “Commercial Space Transportation System,” obviously borrowing from NASA's “Space Transportation System” (STS) designation for the shuttle missions.
The only real catch: new external fuel tanks would have to be built.
While it may at first seem odd to continue flying the aging shuttles, there are some very undeniable pluses. First, the shuttles are a known system. Second, continuing shuttle flights, albeit under private ownership, would eliminate the years-long gap between the shuttles and the next NASA human spaceflight vehicles. Third, it would provide jobs in a very tough economy.
Now, the downside: cost. Flying the shuttles will cost about the same amount of money no matter who operates them. So, even if NASA only picks up half of the bill, it would still cost far more to fly a now privately-owned shuttle than it would for a small rocket-mounted space capsule, like the Dragon being developed bySpace Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) or a Russian Soyuz.
In conclusion, one must remember that nothing is set in stone and only time will tell what happens.
Personally, I'm still counting down the last shuttle flights, which means that each upcoming mission will be a final flight for each respective orbiter (Discovery, which several Cleveland students took a field trip in hopes of seeeing and Endeavor), with Atlantis closing out the shuttle era in June if everything goes according to schedule. So, with the historic nature of these flights, one does not need to see a launch or landing to see the shuttle. Spaceweather has a very handy satellite flyover tool, which means that, by punching in your home zip code, you can get flyby times for Cleveland or anywhere else in the United States or Canada.
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