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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

CEV: Space Offers an Option for Closing Shuttle, CEV Gap

Transformational Space Corp. (t/Space), a company founded in response to the new U.S. vision for space exploration, thinks it can help NASA close the gap between retiring the space shuttle fleet and fielding a Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) to carry astronauts beyond Earth's orbit.

The Reston, Va.-based company already already convinced NASA to give it $6 million in exchange for advice on how the U.S. space agency can reach beyond the traditional aerospace industry to answer a presidential call to return to the Moon by 2020. Now t/Space is hoping to convince NASA to part with $400 million in exchange for an Earth-to-orbit crew transfer vehicle, which company executives say they can have ready in 2008.

NASA's current plan calls for retiring the space shuttle by the end of 2010 and flying the CEV with humans on board for the first time in 2014. However, NASA's new administrator, Mike Griffin, has called the potential four-year gap between shuttle and CEV unacceptable and vowed to take steps to close or at least minimize it.

The t/Space team thinks it can help NASA avoid a gap altogether and wants a chance to prove it. The t/Space team insists that is no hollow promise, and points to the quality of the people on their team, which includes famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan, who made history in 2004 as the builder of the first privately financed piloted spacecraft, and Brett Alexander, a former official with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy who helped shape the development of the new vision President George W. Bush gave NASA last year for future exploration.

More here at Spacenews.com: space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_050509.html
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It's long article, but good for t/Space in stepping up and presenting a plan, and good for NASA Admin Griffin for not wanting the US Space program idle.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Son of Shuttle

Cape Canaveral (UPI) May 10, 2005
No sooner did NASA's deadline pass for companies to submit proposals for a new passenger space transit system than the agency changed the ground rules -- a move that not only will challenge project bidders to accelerate development plans, but also opens the door for a partnership of eclectic space entrepreneurs to demonstrate if it has the moxie to fly people in space.
One member of the commercial space clan actually already has done so, designing, building and flying a sub-orbital spacecraft three times last year in a successful quest for a $10 million cash prize.

To garner National Aeronautics and Space Administration support for its program, however, aircraft designer Burt Rutan, creator of the first privately built passenger spaceship, will have to aim higher.

Rutan's firm, Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif., is partnered with a diverse team of former X Prize contenders, business people, researchers, technical gurus and even a former astronaut to take a stab at designing part of a space transportation system to replace NASA's space shuttles.

Although the agency has a long list of new vehicles that never went farther than the drawing boards, this time around the stakes cannot be higher.

NASA plans to retire its shuttle fleet by 2010. The agency hopes to have the International Space Station completed by then, but even in the best-case scenario, NASA still will need to ferry crews and supplies to the outpost after the shuttles are decommissioned.

More at Space Travel.com: www.space-travel.com/news/spacetravel-05zg.html

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Great that new designs are being submitted for the next generation od US Space Crafts.

I like the shape of the proposed new craft.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

After The Shuttle

"The shuttle is inherently flawed," Griffin testified recently before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. "It does not have an escape system for its crew. We all know that since human perfection is unattainable, sooner or later there will be another shuttle accident. I want to retire it before that flight can occur."

"What we'll be retiring are the orbiters," Griffin said, referring to the winged, reusable crew/cargo components of the shuttle transportation system.

The fleet has been flying since 1981, but the trio of ships still in service - Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour - are the newer additions. Columbia, the first shuttle, and Challenger, the second, were lost in accidents in 2003 and 1986, respectively.

Nevertheless, Griffin is determined to follow Bush's orders to stop flying the orbiters by 2010, whether or not their mission to complete the International Space Station is fulfilled.

"I report to the president," Griffin said. "The president has said we're retiring the orbiter by 2010, and that's what we're doing."

In addition to speeding up development of the CEV, which is NASA's next passenger ship, Griffin is examining alternative ways to fly components of the space station to orbit if delays or problems preclude delivery by the shuttle.

More here at SpaceDaily: www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel-05zl.html
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I like this new guy Griffin more and more. A breath of fresh air and clear thinking.

[Maddad]

admin said:

"I report to the president," Griffin said. "The president has said we're retiring the orbiter by 2010, and that's what we're doing."

Yeah, well, the president won't be president in 2010.