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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 0294.PDF
FULL LIST OF READE & ADVERTISER CONTAC EDITORIAL +44 (20) 8652 3842 Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK Fax '44 (20) 8652 3840 email flightMemational@rbi.co.uk Editor Murdo Morrison +44 (20) 8652 4395 murdo.momson@rbi.co.uk Acting Editor's PA Andrew Costerton t44 (20) 8652 3835 andrew.costerton@rbi.co.uk News Editor Andrew Doyle *44 (20) 8652 3096 andrew.doyle@rbi.co.uk Commercial Aviation Editor Max Kingsley-Jones +44 (20) 8652 3825 max.kingsley.jones@rbi.co.uk Defence Aviation Editor Stewart Penney +44 (20) 8652 3834 stewart.penney@rbi.co.uk Operations/Safety Editor David Learmount +44 (20) 8652 3845 david.learmount@rbi.co.uk Business Editor Alexander Campbell +44 (20) 8652 3990 alexander.campbeli@rbi.co.uk Business & General Aviation Editor Kate Sarsfield +44 (20) 8652 3885 kate.sarsfield@rbi.co.uk Reporter Justin Wastnage +44 (20) 8652 sibljustin.wastnage@rbi.co.uk Technical Reporter Michael Phelan +44 (20) 8652 3843 michael.phelan@rbi.co.uk Spaceflight Correspondent Tim Furniss +44 (1237) 471960 tim@spaceport.co.uk EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST European Editor Christina Mackenzie +33 (1) 64 23 68 89 christina.mackenzie@rbi.co.uk Israel Correspondent Arie Eqozi +972 (3) 9413132 Middle East Correspondent Gerald Butt +357 22 771967 gbutt@spidemet.com.cy AMERICAS Washington DC Office Fax +1 (703) 836 8344 Americas Editor Graham Warwick +1 (703) 836 3448 graham.warwick@rbi.co.uk East Coast Editor Paul Lewis •1 (703) 836 3084 jpaul.lewis@rbi.co.uk West Coast Editor Guy Norris +1 (949) 252 8971 Fax +1 (949) 252 8972 guy.norris@rbi.co.uk Brazil Correspondent Jackson Flores Jr +55 212439-6062 Fax 00 55 212349-6090 fubar@uol.com.br Canada Correspondent Brian Dunn ASIA/PACIFIC Singapore Office Fax +65 6789 7575 Regional Managing Editor Nicholas lonides +65 6780 4311 nicholas.ionides@rbi.co.uk Australia Civil Aviation Correspondent Paul Phelan •61(7)40532791 Fax+61 (7)40533003 pdphelan@optusnet.com.au Australia Military Aviation Correspondent Peter La Franchi +61(0)419246 620 Fax+61 (2) 62312795 nulka@ozemail.com.au COMMENT EDITORIAL PRODUCTION Group Production Editor Graeme Osborn +44 (20) 8652 3828 Group Art Editor James Mason +44 (20) 8652 4994 Chief Sun-Editor Chris Thornton +44 (20) 8652 4997 Deputy Production Editor Jackie Thompson +44 (20) 8652 3850 Sub Editor Megan Turner +44 (20) 8652 3848 Photographer Mark Wagner +44 (20) 8944 5225 Senior Technical Artist Giuseppe Picarella +44 (20) 8652 8054 Editorial Artist Tim Brown +44 (20) 8652 8043 WWW.FLIGHTINTERNATIONAL.COM Webmaster Sheena Buchanan +44 (20) 8652 4432 SUBSCRIPTIONS +44 (1444) 445454 rbi.subscriptions@rbi.co.uk THE FLIGHT COLLECTION kim.hearndPrbi.co.uk © and Database Rights 2003 Reed Business Information Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers n-f] > jL\ j J onlineserviceatwww.rati.com, contains the full text of Flight •—„..„...—.. Internationaland Airline Business since 1996. Full text of the magazines can also be found online with Lexis-Nexis, Dialogue, FT Profile, IAC and Reuters. Editor Kieran Daly +44 (20) 8652 3837 Reed Business Information Conning apart Does the USA still want to reach for the stars? The Columbia Shuttle disaster has highlighted a lack of real commitment to the high frontier The tragic end of Space Shuttle Columbia, and the loss of its seven crewmembers has underscored that space is still a new, and dan gerous, frontier. In the days and weeks that follow Columbia's break-up over Texas, ques tions will be asked about every aspect of the Shuttle programme - including whether manned spaceflight is even necessary. The question that should be asked is whether the USA has betrayed its hard-won leadership in space by forgetting that space is still a frontier, and that it is human nature to conquer new frontiers. It is a sad indictment that it has taken the Columbia accident, the second disaster to befall the Space Shuttle in two decades of otherwise successful operation, to remind the American people that spaceflight is not routine - it is still a risky business. The public needs also to be reminded why the men and women who died on Columbia were in space in the first place. They were there Columbia's demise has shown how much the ISS and Shuttle need each other to explore a new frontier, one of the few left for man to conquer, and it has been mankind's nature to try to push back the boundaries of new frontiers, whatever the risks. It has been too long since the USA had a clear vision for its space programme. A vision like that which took Americans to the moon within a decade. A vision which had begun to fade even as the Space Shuttle programme was launched. Blame can be apportioned at all levels: to successive administrations for failing to articu late to the American people the importance of space exploration; in equal portions to Congress for penny-pinching micro-manage ment and NASA for cost-oblivious mismanagement of the US space programme; and to the public for losing sight of the long- term goal - lifting humanity from the confines of the planet into the vastness of space. Unfortunately, since Apollo put man on the moon, the US space programme has lacked a coherent direction. This has become painfully obvious following the Columbia crash. Today, the Space Shuttle exists to support the International Space Station (ISS) - and the station exists because the Shuttle is there to support it. The two are symbiotic. But the US administration, Congress and NASA have never treated the two program mes as one. Budget cuts to offset cost overruns on the ISS have hurt the Space Shuttle as much as any other NASA program me. Now Columbia's demise has made it clear how much the station needs the Shuttle and the Shuttle needs the station. NASA's original plan, once ISS development and assembly costs were history, was to launch another multi-billion dollar programme, this time to replace the Shuttle with a second-generation reusable launch vehicle. The price tag was estimated to be at least $30 billion, cheap only in comparison with the ISS's $95 billion cost. The Shuttle was to be upgraded to keep it safe to fly until 2012, then phased out in favour of the fully reusable second-generation vehi cle. All that changed last year, in the face of ISS budget cuts and cost controls. Under the new strategy approved late last year, the Shuttle is to be upgraded to keep it flying until 2020, and possibly beyond. In the meantime, a smaller reusable vehicle, the Orbital Space Plane (OSP), is to be developed for launch on an expendable booster. The OSP is set to enter service in 2010 as a crew rescue vehi cle, launched unmanned to the ISS and returning to Earth with crew aboard. In 2012, the OSP is to begin flights as a crew transfer vehicle, flying manned to and from the ISS. So much time and money has been wasted already. If the symbiotic relationship of the two programmes had been acknowledged, the Shuttle could have been upgraded into a more robust space transport system than it is today. Liquid fly-back boosters and new orbiters with improved thermal-protection systems are just some of the options. None of this could have saved Columbia's crew, but it might have made the space programme of which they were a proud part more robust and more likely to survive the scrutiny and inevitable criticism that will follow. It is to be hoped that the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board, in its deliberations on the consequences of the crash, recognises that the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station are symbiotic. And recommends that the administration clearly articulates a commitment to and direc tion for the US manned space programme. And that Congress and NASA recognise that Shuttle and Station, and their eventual succes sors, are essential and interlocking steps towards Mars and on to the stars. SEE P30-31 www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 11-17 FEBRUARY 2003 3
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