NASA has been asked to postpone its orbital space plane program by the US House Science Committee because of escalating costs and uncertainties about the future of the US human space flight programme.
In a letter to NASA chief Sean O鈥橩eefe, the committee criticised the space agency for proceeding before an 鈥渋nteragency review had been completed, approved by the President and thoroughly vetted by the Congress鈥�.
Earlier in October, NASA announced plans to speed up the development of the OSP so it would be ready by 2008 rather than 2010. Its aim was for the space plane to act first as the 鈥渓ifeboat鈥� for the International Space Station and eventually as the primary vehicle transporting astronauts to the orbital outpost. This would relieve the space shuttle of this role, though it would still be needed for cargo transport.
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Current plans are for the OSP to be capable of carrying four astronauts, one more than the Russian Soyuz capsules that are the only way of reaching the ISS at the moment. This would make it possible to have larger crews living on the ISS.
鈥淣o longer credible鈥�
The board that investigated the Columbia space shuttle disaster recommended that the future goals of human spaceflight be subject to a national debate before any replacement for the shuttle be considered.
The letter, released on Monday, also expressed concerns about escalating costs for the program, describing its budget as 鈥渃learly no longer credible鈥�. The letter continued: 鈥淧rior human space flight projects at NASA have been plagued by problems stemming from the unrealistic cost estimates put forth at their inception.鈥�
鈥淭his is something we have to take very seriously,鈥� a NASA spokesman told 快猫短视频. 鈥淲e are still drafting a response to the letter, which should be ready by the end of the week.鈥�
Double trouble
The letter was made public just as the latest ISS crew made what NASA officials described as a 鈥渄ream landing鈥� in their Soyuz capsule in a desert in Kazakhstan.
The flawless touchdown will have come as a relief to mission managers, as the last such flight in May landed 460 kilometres off course. The problem was thought to have occurred due to a glitch in the craft鈥檚 guidance software, which caused it to re-enter the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere at a steeper angle than expected.
Monday鈥檚 landing was only tarnished by a mistake made by one of the returning astronauts just before the Soyuz departed. According to a Russian space official, one of the astronauts had accidentally pressed two buttons at the same time causing the Soyuz to fire its thrusters before it had disengaged from the ISS.
Valery Ryumin of the Energia company said this pushed the ISS 25掳 away from its normal orientation. Scarce rocket fuel had to be used to correct the ISS鈥檚 orbit.