Spaceships of future still lacking
By Philip Chien
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 3, 2003
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20030303-45223381.htm
The Columbia accident was a reminder that the space shuttle was designed as an all-purpose vehicle — a space truck on some missions, a laboratory on others. But because the shuttle can do so many different jobs, it's extremely inefficient for a specific purpose, particularly transporting people.
For the past two decades the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been examining a replacement to take up some of the shuttle's responsibilities, but so far none of the projects has made it to flight. The X-30 "Orient Express" was too much of a leap in technology and remained a paper study, the X-33 was overweight and underperforming and was canceled with only a partially built prototype to show, and the X-38 was over budget and behind schedule and only some drop tests were completed.
The X-38 was a prototype for a U.S. "lifeboat" for the International Space Station Alpha. But it was intended for use only as a lifeboat. NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe said the likelihood that a crew would ever be forced to abandon the space station was small and it didn't make sense to spend so much money for something that was unlikely ever to be used. Still, it's considered an absolute necessity to avoid a "Titanic" situation with not enough lifeboat seats for everybody onboard.
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==>Will be interesting to see what develops. - LRK -
