NASA girds for a 5-year gap in flights

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Oct 6, 2008 | by John Schwartz New York Times News Service

STAR CITY, Russia -- This place was once no place, a secret military base northeast of Moscow that did not show up on maps. The Soviet Union trained its astronauts here to fight on the highest battlefield of the Cold War: space.

Yet these days, Star City is where American astronauts train to fly aboard Soyuz spacecraft. And in two years Star City will be the only place to send astronauts from any nation to the International Space Station.

The gap is coming: From 2010, when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration shuts down the space shuttle program, to 2015, when the next generation of American spacecraft is to arrive, NASA expects to have no human flight capacity and will depend on Russia to get to the $100 billion station, buying seats on Soyuz craft as space tourists do.

As NASA celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, the Bush administration's plan to retire the nation's three space shuttles has thrust the U.S. space program into national politics.

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama have denounced the gap and promoted their commitment to the space program while on trips to Florida, where thousands of workers will lose their jobs when the shuttle program ends. And U.S.-Russia friction is clouding the future of a 15-year partnership in space, precisely when NASA will be more reliant on Russia than ever before.

The administrator of NASA, Michael D. Griffin, has called the situation "unseemly in the extreme." Griffin said he ordered his staff to explore flying the aging shuttles past 2010 "about five minutes after the Russians invaded Georgia." But he warned that any extension would be costly and could further delay NASA's return to the moon and threaten America's role as the leading space power.

China, which last month made the third successful launching of its Shenzhou VII spacecraft and the first spacewalk by one of its astronauts, has said it hopes to establish a space station and eventually make a moon landing. The United States plans to return to the moon by 2020 at the earliest; some observers believe China might get there first.

That prospect concerns Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla. When a fellow congressman recently suggested naming the first new lunar base after Neil Armstrong, Feeney recalled responding, "What makes you think the Chinese are going to give us permission to name their base after one of our astronauts?"