NASA downsizing their plans for spacestation.

link

NASA is scaling back its plans for the orbiting International Space Station, a result of its goal of retiring the space shuttle and sending Americans back to the moon.

A centrifuge laboratory to study the effects of gravity on animals won't be added, NASA Assistant Associate Administrator Mark Uhran said Monday. Another laboratory and a compartment that would have held life-support equipment are also "at higher risk" of being left on the ground, he said. (Related item: NASA administrator softens comments on shuttle)


A Russian component that would have produced power for Russian science facilities will "probably" not make it to the station either, Uhran said. However, space station labs being built by Europe and Japan are not in jeopardy, nor are the solar panels that will supply those labs with electricity.


The plan to retire the shuttle by the fall of 2010 doomed the centrifuge lab, because only the shuttle has the size and strength to carry the station's massive pieces into orbit. Russia's space vehicles can deliver food and other supplies to the station, but they're too small to carry the station's larger pieces.


NASA wants to retire the shuttle to save money to help pay for the plan to send humans to the moon in 2018.

it looks like NASA is serious about attempting to colonize the moon and mars. removing these space station and other not ambitious projects shows that they are moving forward with the colonization.

I disagree I think it shows they're not serious about funding space exploration at all. The lunar plan is just that, a plan, nothing more. I have no confidence it will actually be funded and executed.

The ISS, whatever faults it may have, is a physical reality, not just a plan. Ditching what we have now for something that may never come to pass seems like a convenient way of abandoning manned spaceflight while pretending we're not.

[edit on 10/5/05 by xmotex]

A centrifuge laboratory to study the effects of gravity on animals won't be added

LOL

There's a bit of video footage for you...

"First, we place the kitten in the chair and run it at 5 G's. Then, we remove the kitten and allow it to float free in weightlessness. Notice the kitten's reactions..."

Awesome.

Sadly its true the major parts of the ISS are so heavy and large that they cannot be lifted to the ISS by any other launcher currently in service besides the Shuttle.The European Space Agency's laboratory module Columbus is ready to go, but without a shuttle to bring it up its grounded.

If they retire the Shuttle before all planned parts are up the ISS is for lack of a better word boned