I know the shuttle program is set to be retired this year. I am wondering how many flights the space shuttles have left. Do we know which shuttle will be the last to fly? Also, I heard the other night that President Obama has killed funding for the rockets that will replace the shuttle which pretty much kill a return to the moon. Is the shuttle program going to be extended because of this?
How many more flights does the space shuttle program have left before the shuttles are retired?
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There’s a chance they’ll launch STS-135 in addition to the five remaining scheduled flights since it will be ready to go as the rescue mission for STS-133 anyhow. If they went for it and something went wrong with it after launch they’d just hang out at the station until the Russian could send a Soyuz to bring them home.
As with all things NASA and the space program, it is “up in the air” as to future plans. Killing rockets to replace funding for shuttles? See this: http://www. redorbit. com/news/space/1814862/constellation_program_may_lose_funding/Future missions of shuttles: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/List_of_space_shuttle_missions130 February 7 2010 STS-130 Endeavour ISS assembly flight 11d 6 ~ 20A: Node 3 and Cupola. 131 March 18 2010 STS-131 Discovery ISS assembly flight 7 ~ 11d Utility and Logistics Flight 4: Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo. 132 May 14 2010 STS-132 Atlantis ISS assembly flight 11d 6 ~ 19A: Mini-Research Module 1 Final planned flight of Atlantis. 133 July 29 2010 STS-134 Endeavour ISS assembly flight 6 ~ 12d ULF6, ELC 4, ROEU, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Final planned flight of Endeavour. 134 September 16 2010 STS-133 Discovery 6 ~ 10d last planned space shuttle mission. ISS assembly flight ULF5, MPLM Leonardo, (to be left pemanently attached), ELC third Final flight of Discovery. NASA to extend shuttles? See: http://www. universe today. com/2008/08/29/nasa-is-making-preliminary-plans-to-extend-shuttle-launches-beyond-2010/But this stuff is 18 months old, and probably not possible, either because of funding or of safety factors.
There are 5 more missions remaining, with the next one scheduled to blast off February 7th. Here are the details of these upcoming missions: http://www. nasa. gov / mission_pages / shuttle / shuttle missions / index. html
I guess we’ll have to see what happens. Congress does have the right to appropriate money for things, but the President has to spend it, so to speak. The President can not spend what Congress does not appropriate, so we’ll have to see – at an extra 10 or 20 billion dollars does not seem like much these days. Whether the shuttle’s life is extended, the Ares rocket Whether designs are abandoned, we’ll have to see. Built it does not make a lot of sense to kill the program to start over again, unless the new rocket systems are going to be built in Chicago or something like that, instead of being what wherever the Ares.