Quote:
Originally Posted by mookiemookie
I doubt this will be the end of space travel for the U.S. I believe there will be a next generation space shuttle at some point. It may not happen for a while, but I think the desire for that sort of scientific research and understanding is too strong to keep us grounded or reliant upon the Russians.
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Exactly, some people think that this the end of the US space program.
The STS was a compromise design and frankly was not the optimum platform. In a car analogy, we are in the Model T eara. Should we have stuck with the model T for the next 90 years? Of course not.
Well the STS was the Model T of space exploration. Time to move on to the next model. Hopefully politics won't force this new program to be as much a compromise program as the STS, but that's politics for you.
Right now, we have a way of getting to the ISS. The US does not need to build a new system to get humans to the ISS. We need to build a new system capable of more than the existing STS. And that will take time, which we have plenty of, and money which we ain't got at this time.