Word: spacecraft
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...launchpads have long since cooled following the lift-off of NASA's two Mars rovers in June and July. But the spacecraft have been pressing ahead. During a summer that Americans spent lazing or working or planning vacations, the twin vehicles, dubbed Spirit and Opportunity, have traveled 137 million miles and 91 million miles, respectively (with 166 million and 192 million more to go), on their way to touchdowns on nearly opposite sides of the Red Planet...
NASA has seen the future, and it is the space capsule. Seven months after the Columbia debacle the agency is giving serious consideration to bringing back a new version of the Apollo capsule, the expendable spacecraft that served the U.S. space program during its glory days in the 1960s through the mid-1970s. Supporters say they are not retreating into the past so much as waking up, at last, to the dangers of attempting spaceflight with winged shuttles, a notion given ample support by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board's report released last week. Boosters on Capital Hill...
...Columbia accident report called on NASA to develop a shuttle replacement as soon as possible. As a result, the space agency is taking a new look at spacecraft designs that were once intended to supplement the shuttle strictly as a crew transfer vehicle for the space station, but now might have to serve as a bridge between the shuttle and some next-generation spacecraft based on technology that might not emerge for decades. NASA could have to live with its choice for some time, and that gives the capsule and its ability to leave Earth orbit a big boost. "There...
...public was generally aware. While NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe was quick to promise, just four hours after the crash, that shuttles would resume normal flight operations as soon as possible, some of the program's staunchest backers were soon nursing doubts about the long term viability of winged spacecraft. With just three orbiters remaining - Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour - one more catastrophic accident would mean the program could not support enough flights to keep the space station operating. And an orbital space plane would share many of the same limitations as the shuttle. What if a rocket were about...
...Congressional allies will have an easy time pitching a quick return to space to the public, which continues to support space exploration by impressive margins. Safety is a harder sell, since NASA has been touting the shuttle system as safe since the very beginning, and superior to every other spacecraft ever flown. As one Congressional source put it, "If NASA goes with the capsule design, you'll hear a lot about our ability to return to the moon. This may take us there, but that's secondary. Safety is the number one issue. Safety is driving the design...