the space shuttle

find it a little disturbing that some of the topics that we have covered toward the end of class are not history to me, but memories of my childhood and high school years. I remember sitting in class watching on TV as the Challenger shuttle launched with the “first teacher in space” and subsequently exploded before our eyes. I remember when the existence of the SR-71 ‘Blackbird’ spy plane became public knowledge (even though the government still denied its existence). I remember debating in Civics classes the merits and possible effectiveness of Reagan’s SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) program. I remember well the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Soviet Union. I also remember well the world before the World Wide Web (I would say internet, but that came much earlier). I mention these events because they aren’t history to me, but part of the world that shaped my life and views and attitudes about the world.

It is interesting reading news reports about the next shuttle launch and “America’s return to space”. I grew up with the shuttle program. It was the wondrous next step in the progression of American supremacy in space. Yes, we read of the Russians launching rockets into orbit, but never read of anything productive that was accomplished because of it. They were woefully behind us, we who had the amazing reusable shuttle (until they copied it calling it the Buran, but then they only flew it once, unmanned, and then the Soviet Union fell apart). The space shuttle program was the stuff that boys dreamed of. These astronauts were heroes. I was too young to remember Skylab, and it wasn’t really talked about in history classes yet, so these were the real American heroes right up there with the Apollo astronauts.

It was a very interesting time. In its own way, it was not unlike the 1950’s with its heyday of science fiction and future predictions of technology and space travel. The difference was that people were writing about settlements on the moon and steppingstones to mars and beyond. It wasn’t something that everyone would be doing, but it was going to be done – and we would lead the way with the space shuttle. The end of that beginning started with the Challenger explosion. The shuttle began to be seen for what it was – an experimental flight system complete with its flaws and limitations.

So now we are faced with the shuttle program that is aging, under funded, and without replacement. A successor was being developed, called the X-33 and X-34 programs, but technology hurdles and delays ultimately killed the program. Lockheed Martin, the principal partner with NASA, was unable to continue the program without more funding (among other reasons) from the government. NASA’s current hopes for a shuttle replacement is not to replace it at all, but to give that over to private industry and contract out to them to use the vehicles they develop and rent launch facilities to them. Is it a good idea? We’ll know when the shuttle fleet becomes completely unusable.