Punctuated by a collective sigh of relief, the space shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts completed a near-perfect landing on Tuesday. The always-dangerous re-entry into the planet’s atmosphere sparked more concerns than usual this time, given the catastrophic end of the shuttle Columbia’s flight 21/2 years ago.
Now a bigger question looms: Is it time for the shuttle program to turn in its wings?
Shuttle flights aren’t just rife with risks, they are predisposed to disaster. Two destroyed shuttles and 14 lost lives scar the program’s history. Beyond excitement, the eve of a shuttle launch now includes nervous hope and crossed fingers.
Discovery only compounded those concerns. Since the Columbia accident in 2003, NASA had worked to ensure that insulating foam on the shuttle’s external fuel tank wouldn’t dislodge during launch, a problem that damaged and ultimately doomed Columbia. The $1.5 billion spent on modifications didn’t fix the problem. Insulation broke off again, but this time, merely by the luck of the stars, it missed Discovery.
Space exploration is risky, but it shouldn’t be this risky – especially in a program that’s been around for more than a quarter-century.
Recognizing its failure to fix the foam problem, NASA announced it was grounding the shuttles indefinitely after Discovery’s lift-off. The fleet should stay on the ground unless NASA can show convincingly that the foam issue has been solved. And before spending more millions – or billions – on a fix, a frank discussion should take place over whether the shuttle program is worth continuing at all.
There’s a strong case for ending it. The program already is winding down, and its remaining mission is predominately to service the international space station, another program of dubious value. Beyond its example of international cooperation, the space station provides few tangible benefits. One aging, expensive program servicing another hardly seems like a good use of limited resources – or worthy of risk to human lives.
President Bush already has set NASA on a course to return to the moon, a potential stepping stone to the human exploration of Mars. That, at least, is a clearer goal than the shuttle program has operated under the past few years.
The next order of business for the U.S. space program should be a full discussion of its next steps, weighing costs against benefits. If the benefits of continuing the shuttle program don’t outweigh its costs, it should be scrapped.
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