Space Shuttle retirement
After the Columbia loss in 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board report showed that the Space Transportation System (STS) was risky/unsafe, and due to the expense to make Shuttle safe, in 2004, President G. W. Bush announced (along with the VSE policy) that the Shuttles would be retired in 2010 (after completing the ISS assembly).
In/by 2010 the Shuttle was formally scheduled for retirement with Atlantis being taken out of service first after STS-132 in May of that year, but the program was once again extended when the two final planned missions were delayed until 2011.
Counter-proposals to the shuttle's retirement were considered by Congress[4] and the prime contractor United Space Alliance as late as Spring 2010.
[5] Hardware developed for the Space Shuttle met various ends with conclusion of the program, including donation, disuse and/or disposal, or reuse.
[7][8] On April 12, 2011, NASA announced that the 4 remaining Space Shuttle orbiters will be displayed permanently at these locations:[9][10][11] New York City, New York Chantilly, Virginia Merritt Island, Florida Los Angeles, California *Prior to its move to Intrepid Museum, Enterprise was originally displayed in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, from 2003 to 2011.
[12] While local and Congressional politicians in Texas questioned if partisan politics played a role in the selection, former JSC Director Wayne Hale wrote, "Houston didn't get an orbiter because Houston didn't deserve it", pointing to weak support from area politicians, media and residents, describing a "sense of entitlement".
The chair of the NASA committee that made the selections pointed to the guidance from Congress that the orbiters go to facilities where the most people could see them, and the ties to the space program of Southern California (home to Edwards Air Force Base, where nearly half of shuttle flights have ended and home to the plants which manufactured the orbiters and the RS-25 engines), the Smithsonian (curator of the nation's air and space artifacts), the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (where all Shuttle launches originated, and a large tourist draw) and the Intrepid Museum (Intrepid also served as the recovery ship for Project Mercury and Project Gemini).
[15] In August 2011 the NASA Inspector General released an audit of the display selection process; it highlighted issues which led to the final decision.
The two most controversial locations which were not awarded an orbiter, Space Center Houston and National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, finished 2nd to last and near the middle of the list respectively.
It involved removing the three main engines (they were slated to be reused on NASA's Space Launch System); the windows were given to project engineers for analysis of how materials and systems fared after repeated space exposure; the communications modules were removed due to national–security concerns; and hazardous materials such as traces of propellants were thoroughly flushed from the plumbing.
NASA ran a program to donate thermal protection system tiles to schools and universities for US$23.40 each (the fee for shipping and handling).
By 2012, NASA came to the conclusion that it would incur material cost to maintain LC-39A even in an inactive state and decided to seek interest of others to lease the pad for their use.
For the first few missions from 39A, even after SLC-40 was reactivated, SpaceX dismantled the RSS between launches and added black cladding to the fixed service structure.
NASA awarded a contract in March 2014 for design and build/delivery of VAB High Bay 3 modifications to support the SLS program.
[41] The Crawler-Transporters were used as the mobile part of the pad with the Shuttles; the two vehicles were deactivated and are being upgraded for the Space Launch System.
The crawlerways used for transporting launch vehicles from the VAB to the twin pads of KSC are also being extensively renovated for the Artemis program.
Liberty Star was renamed as TV Kings Pointer and was transferred to the Merchant Marine Academy in New York for use as a training vessel.
Freedom Star was transferred to the James River Reserve Fleet on September 28, 2012, and placed under ownership of the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD).
[54][55] In the late 1980s, a planned successor to STS was called "Shuttle II", which encompassed a number of different ideas including smaller tanks over the wings and a detachable crew cabin for emergencies, and was influenced by the Challenger disaster.
For comparison to an earlier retirement, when the Saturn IB was last flown in 1975 for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the Shuttle development program was already well underway.
The Constellation program experienced many cost overruns and schedule delays, and was openly criticized by the subsequent U.S. President, Barack Obama.
[59][62] In February 2010, the Obama administration proposed eliminating public funds for the Constellation program and shifting greater responsibility of servicing the ISS to private companies.
[63] During a speech at the Kennedy Space Center on April 15, 2010, President Obama proposed the design selection of the new HLV that would replace the Ares-V but would not occur until 2015.
[71] Russia proposed using the Soyuz as a lifeboat for what was still Space Station Freedom in late 1991, leading to further analysis of this concept in the early 1990s.
[81] Artemis 3 is planned to launch in 2026[82] aboard a SLS Block 1 rocket and will use the minimalist Gateway and expendable lander to achieve the first crewed lunar landing of the program.
[70] Although the Orion spacecraft is oriented towards deep-space missions such as NEO visitation, it can also be used to retrieve crew or supplies from the ISS if that task is needed.
[97] The CRS program provides for all the projected U.S. cargo-transportation needs to the ISS, with the exception of a few vehicle–specific payloads to be delivered on the European ATV and the Japanese HTV.
[90] In the first phase of the program, NASA provided a total of $50 million divided among five U.S. companies, intended to foster research and development into human spaceflight concepts and technologies in the private sector.
It carried a crew of two NASA astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, for a 62-day mission, which was incorporated as part of Expedition 63.
[107] It carried a crew of two NASA astronauts, Barry E. Wilmore and Sunita Williams, for a 8-day short mission, albeit extended to more than a month in length due to propulsion issues.
