The End of the Shuttle Era

Discovery, one of the NASA space shuttles, was launched for the final time on February 24, 2011. The mission is the beginning of the end for the space shuttle era with only two flights remaining, one by Atlantis and the second by Endeavour, before the shuttle program is finally put to bed later this year.

The first shuttle flight was in April 1981, followed by thirty years of NASA dominance in space transportation. With no scheduled replacement and no plans to keep them operating at a part time basis, the retirement of the Space Transportation System (the proper name for the shuttle program) could very well spell the end of NASA's monopoly on extraterrestrial travel.

For many, the retirement of the space shuttles signifies much more than just the loss of the instantly recognizable spacecraft. When first launched, the shuttles represented America's great engineering culture. For the first time there was a fleet of spacecraft that could be taken into space again and again. The idea was that by reusing the shuttles for each flight, the trips would be more cost effective and, ultimately, safer. It didn't quite work out like that.

The cost of sending a shuttle into space only got more and more pricey as time went on. Reusing the shuttle didn't save money, it only created more problems. Parts constantly needed to be replaced and the clunky design meant that upgrades and improvements were more of a hassle than a relief. It probably would have been easier to start from scratch. But of course NASA couldn't. The shuttles had been billed as the answer to easy and affordable space travel, yet in a lot of ways they only made it worse.

And then the unthinkable happened. On January 28, 1986, Challenger was launched on its way to deploy a satellite in orbit around the Earth. On board was the winner of one of the biggest competitions in America, the Teacher in Space Project. Christa McAuliffe was chosen to be the face of Challenger mission STS-51-L in an attempt to get the American public interested in space travel once again.

Seventy-three seconds after Challenger left Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the shuttle disintegrated, killing the seven crew members on board. It was the beginning of a two-and-a-half-year grounding of all shuttle flights while safety inspections and investigations into the cause of the Challenger disaster were carried out.

Unfortunately, Challenger wasn't the only tragedy to hit the shuttle program. On February 1, 2003, Columbia was also destroyed, but this time it happened as the spacecraft reentered the Earth's atmosphere rather than at the mission launch.

The safety of the shuttles has always been a contentious issue. Their reusable nature was supposed to improve their reliability. It's debatable whether this was the case.

It had been decided a while ago that the shuttles would be put into retirement. In fact, the date kept being pushed back. The shuttles were never intended to last thirty years in their current state. But budget restrictions have left the spacecraft decidedly outdated and lacking in current technological advancements. The computer system that controls the shuttles has only been upgraded once, back in the early nineties, and considering the advances in nanotechnology and computer chips since then, the shuttle computer looks like a dinosaur in comparison.

The shuttles have played a significant role in the construction of the International Space Station (ISS), which will be completed this year when the final few parts are taken into space on the remaining shuttle flights.

The shuttles, and to some extent the ISS, represent a time in American history when greatness was equated with progress. Building the first space station became a priority, building a fleet of spacecraft that could make repeated journeys to space was sought after, being the first to conquer the skies was a necessity. But as time has gone on, it has become clear that space isn't all that easy to conquer. It's expensive and dangerous. There has also been a quite significant change in the "public psyche." Space is no longer a priority. There is enough going on down here without worrying about sending someone to the Moon.

The shuttles represent the engineering ingenuity of NASA from the beginning of the space race: the great minds that worked so hard to get humans into space. But now it is safe to say that manned space travel has become low priority. NASA has its sight firmly set on bigger and bolder things. Answering questions about the Big Bang, building bigger telescopes that can see the furthest objects from the farthest distance. Those are the goals of NASA now. And unfortunately, the money pit that is the shuttle program is only getting in the way.

The loss of the shuttle program will inevitably see NASA lose its dominance in manned space flights — there is no NASA replacement on the cards — but it won't spell the end of NASA's dominance in deep-skies research. The new era in NASA history has just begun, and it starts in the furthest reaches of the Universe.

Image Credit: NASA (via Flickr)