The American space shuttle program is now over. Is that good news, or bad news?
BBC News published an article today: Space shuttle: The darker view of the end of an era, and it raises some interesting issues. In the article they poke fun at the American coverage of the last Shuttle flight, all happily retrospective. The truth, of course, is that NASA is backing off from manned space exploration, even while the Chinese make plans to send a man to the moon. My thoughts:
It can be argued that this is a sad day for America. With the end of the shuttle program, thousands will lose their jobs, and those thousands of people may no longer be working developing the technology that made the USA an economic powerhouse for the last hundred years.
As a Canadian, our collective consciousness is scared by the cancellation of the Avro Arrow project in the late 1950′s. The Avro Arrow was a very advanced interceptor aircraft, and it had the potential to make Canada a world leader in this type of technology. Instead, with the cancellation of the project, the brains behind the Avro Arrow left to take work at a new organization down south:
NASA.
And now NASA is faced with the same issue: to continue, or not.
Is it a tragedy that many NASA employees and related company employees will be losing their jobs. It is sad that the Chinese government is taking over from the government run NASA organization.
It is sad that American astronauts must now rely on the Soyuz ”Russian taxi service” to take them to and from the International Space Station.
But, is it really a tragedy?
It will depend on whether or not the private sector steps into the void and takes over the race for space.
The central problem with NASA, in my view, is that they are a government owned and operated organization. They are not required to turn a profit, and they are subject to the whims of politicians. John K. Kennedy wanted America to put a man on the moon “before the end of this decade” and they did. Presidents Bush and Obama realized that there is no money left in the kitty, so the shuttle program is killed, with no obvious replacement.
If there is a profit to be made, private enterprise will take over many elements of the space program, and they will probably do it more cheaply, and perhaps better.
The criticism of private enterprise, of course, is that they cut corners and put profit ahead of safety. Perhaps, but I believe we lost two space shuttles, and their crew, so I doubt private enterprise could have a worse safety record.
Is the end of the shuttle program a tragedy? Only time will tell. The end of the shuttle program may set back the American space program, or it may be just the boost it needs, if more efficient and innovative private enterprise steps in to fill the void.
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