The Shattered Sky

NASA’s next-generation spacecraft, the Orion crew capsule will not be in service before 2014, a SPACE.com article revealed today (link). While NASA was pushing for a 2013 operational date, available funding appears to have put that idea to rest.

Even though the programme is still well within the 2015 deadline, this means NASA will be without its own manned vehicle for a period of four years. Remember that the Space Shuttle will make its final flight in 2010, retiring upon completion of the International Space Station. Inevitably, this is going to result in massive layoffs and deterioration of NASA’s launching and training facilities. It happened when Apollo ended  years before the Shuttle flew, and it’s going to happen again when the Shuttle retires with Orion still in development.

There are certainly going to be those who disagree with me but if the US government can spend such wanton resources on military might then it can pump the extra dollars into its scientific ventures. Thus far, space technology has provided us with so much we take for granted in our daily lives, from medical care to communications to kitchen frying pans. More than that, space technology and exploration provides inspiration to many and in the long term addresses the age-old proverbial problem of having all our eggs in one basket.

Not many people know it, but in a very real sense we are not that far off from setting foot on other worlds and exploring beyond the solar system.  Now is not the time to skimp. Give NASA what they need to do their job.