Why did NASA stop using the space shuttle?
NASA’s outer space activities have been made possible in previous years with the help of space shuttles. Most people would recognise space shuttles from Star Wars and other space movies. In case you are wondering, NASA has stopped the use of these shuttles.
Whether your major concern is gry hazardowe na prawdziwe pieniadze or understanding why NASA stopped this program, the latter will be answered here.
The space shuttle program was initiated about a decade after Apollo 17 launched in 1972. Before it was halted, the space shuttle flew on over 135 missions, and the last mission was in July 2011.
The End of the Space Shuttle Program
During its operation, the space shuttle program encountered several mishaps. One of the notable ones occurred in the year 2003 when a space shuttle re-entering the atmosphere disintegrated. Following this damage, all space crew aboard died, and this records as the second fatal accident in the program.
NASA still had three shuttles available when the Space Shuttle Program ended. A total of 25, 33, and 39 flights had each shuttle completed. The shuttles were designed to fly 100 times over their lifetime; however, this was not possible. The shuttle space program has caused the agency to have problems with parts obsolescence. Even if two of the shuttles had failed, the failure rate was still the same as that of all other launch vehicles.
When it comes to space travel, there is a certain amount of inherent risk. Nevertheless, with each failure, there has been a significant gain in terms of dependability for the following trips.
The Bush administration realised it was time for the Space Shuttle Program to wind down because of many circumstances, including excessive costs, a long turnaround, a lack of clients, and a spacecraft (and agency) with significant safety issues.
Future of Space shuttle under NASA
President Bush described the end of the shuttle era in a speech in 2004, but he did not specify what would happen next (or how much it would cost). As a result of this choice, NASA was now reliant on the Russians for access to space.
As well as the test orbiter Enterprise, the remaining three space shuttles, Discovery, Endeavor, and Atlantis, are now displayed at museums. I can confirm that even after seeing some of these ships up close, they are still mesmerising to see.
The future of crewed spaceflight under NASA is uncertain, given that SpaceX has already sent humans into space and that other private space companies are developing quickly. For instance, the Space Launch System with its Orion crew module, the agency’s projected replacement for the Space Shuttle, has yet to fly successfully, much less with a crew.
For NASA and the public, the termination of the Space Shuttle Program still looms large. But in the end, it appears like retiring was the right decision, even if it would have been wonderful to have a better strategy for who would replace the shuttles’ shoes.
