Space Shuttle Atlantis

This afternoon, at around 3pm EST, the Space Shuttle Atlantis arrived at Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A. Atlantis is one of three functional Space Shuttles in NASA's fleet after the destruction of Challenger and Columbia. The other two remaining shuttles are Discovery and Endeavor. After the shuttle completes this launch to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, it will be the first shuttle in its class to be retired.

It alarms me that of the five original Space Shuttles only three remain operational. It alarms me that NASA has continued to use Shuttles that were designed for ten years of operation for more than twenty years. Atlantis' first flight was in October 1985, this, ostensibly, will be its last. It alarms me that NASA has made no new discoveries to get Man into Space more quickly and more safely than Space Shuttles and Solid Fuel Booster Rockets. They're stuck, and they know it.

Atlantis will be the first Space Shuttle retired, but it won't be the last. Both of the other remaining Space Shuttles are supposed to be decommissioned by 2010. At that time, NASA hopes to introduce its Orion spacecraft as its primary Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and Ares I as its primary Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV). NASA will have achieved the equivalent of changing the tires on your car, everything is the same (the technology, the operation, the agenda) except what actually touches the road (space travel) is a little bit better and hopefully a who lot less dangerous.

NASA is in a rut. If this sci-fi friendly rendering of space travel is the best that they can do to dynamically restore the program as paramount to the United States, then color me unimpressed.