Word: space
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...time in more than 40 years that NASA has tested a prototype of a new rocket system to take passengers beyond Earth orbit. Ares I is part of a family of new rockets in NASA's Constellation program, which was propelled by former President George W. Bush's 2005 space initiative to go to Mars or back to the moon. Ares would be equipped to fill in for the aging space shuttle - which is planned for retirement in 2010, although scheduled shuttle flights are likely to extend into 2011 - on missions to the International Space Station...
Regardless of the success of the $445 million flight test, the significance of the 327-ft. rocket is uncertain. A report delivered to the White House on Oct. 22 from the Human Space Flights Plan Committee said the Constellation program's goals were underfunded. The committee, headed by Norman Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp., concluded that NASA needs another $3 billion a year to pursue meaningful human space exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Facing a $1.4 trillion federal deficit, even NASA's most ardent supporters in Congress, who represent some of the 60,000 jobs associated...
Alternatives offered up by the Augustine committee include stimulating a competitive commercial space industry in hopes that it might eventually result in lower launch costs. In deciding which direction to go, the Augustine committee warned of "perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources...
That ground was covered by earlier Administrations, from which sprang the inherently dangerous design of the space shuttle in the 1970s. Budget cuts and compromises led to the critical mistake of designing the shuttle to fly horizontally but launch vertically, leaving the ship helpless and without any abort option right after launch if something went wrong...
...Sept. meeting, Faculty Council member Harry R. Lewis ’68 directed eyes to a stark white space on the wall above University President Drew G. Faust’s head that had long been occupied by a portrait of former University President Charles W. Eliot, Class...