A letter to the president from Senators Hutchinson, McCain and Vitter expresses concern over the upcoming cancellation of the Space Shuttle without a viable replacement online.
Presently, the United States has an agreement with Russia to "purchase" transport of American astronauts to the International Space Station using the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Some feel that this "agreement" is sufficient to guarantee American participation in whatever is being conducted on board the space station.
However, if the Shuttle is cancelled without us having an operational replacement, the United States will be at the mercy of the whims of the Russian government for access. In times of tension between Russia and the United States, we may find ourselves locked out from any access at all.
Further, how will we repair and maintain our satellites without the Shuittle or its replacement? Does the federal government intend to just replace every one that fails? Those things take years to build and test, and waiting for any number of replacements for failed satellites could easily cripple our communications network for years.
The Russians have many times demonstrated that any agreement they make with the United states will be honored only so long as it is advantageous to them to do so.
If we shut down the Shuttle program without it's replacement up and operational, we are out of the space race... and any control of space we now possess.
No comments:
Post a Comment