Houston, YOU have a problem.

With no space shuttles to take astronauts to the International Space Station, the U.S. relies upon Russian rockets. But amid deep concerns over a recent rocket crash, Russia on Tuesday announced it was postponing the launch of the latest space station crew to Nov. 12 -- mere days before before the final astronauts on the orbiting laboratory are due to return to Earth.

That makes the potential for an unmanned International Space Station very real -- and NASA could have seen it coming, said Christopher C. Kraft, the former director of NASA's Manned Spaceflight Center.


"You can't put your head in the sand about the fact that you're going to have failures," he told FoxNews.com. Failures are to be expected in vehicles as old as the Soyuz -- or the American shuttle for that matter, Kraft said.

The space shuttle was a crucial alternative, said Art Harman, director of The Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration.

"The political and budgetary rush to scrap the shuttles was so strong that all the risks inherent in relying upon any single source, much less the Russian system in particular, were downplayed or ignored," he told FoxNews.com.

"They've got no prepared alternate landing site for routine use, which therefore forces home our crews in each case a month earlier than the Soyuz expiration dates alone would require. That's incredible negligence," he said.

NASA believed the Soyuz craft would keep the International Space Station manned and supplied while the nascent commercial space industry in the U.S. developed replacement spacecraft. But Russia has encountered a disastrous string of issues that may make that policy untenable.

In a string of spectacular failures, Russia has lost four spacecraft over the past 10 months. In December, a rocket and its payload of three communications satellites fell into the Pacific Ocean after failing to reach orbit. A military satellite was lost in February, and in mid-August the Express-AM4, described by officials as Russia's most powerful telecommunications satellite, was lost.

"Many of the systemic weaknesses of the Soyuz system were not a big deal in the shuttle era. Yet now they indeed become of paramount concern to the survival of our $100 billion investment in America's space future," Harman warned.

Without shuttles, and without Soyuz, the space station may be in danger.

"The whole thing is a damn house of cards," Kraft told FoxNews.com. "Without the space shuttle, you leave yourself extremely vulnerable to losing the whole space station," he said.

That has far greater implications than it sounds, he noted. For example, NASA has been been promoting the privatization of space flight as a replacement for the space shuttle.

"Without the space station, there is no market for the commercial vehicles. Zero," Kraft said.

Astronauts have been living aboard the station, without interruption, for almost 11 years. NASA has insisted last month's accident will have no adverse influence on the International Space Station crew, because their existing supplies of food, water and oxygen are sufficient.

"That's true," Kraft told FoxNews.com. "They have a very good complement of equipment. The question is, do they have the right equipment? And can they use if it they have to?"

He noted that extra-vehicular activity, or EVA, was often required to repair the station or add a new part. If the station is damaged, however, how would crew perform that operation?

"If you've got a damaged space station and you couldn't do an EVA, the U.S. shuttle would have been the only other vehicle with an EVA capability."

By retiring the shuttle, he said, we've impacted our ability to perform that and other operations.

"It was the best vehicle, best rocketship, best launch vehicle we have ever built in this country. And with modernization, it could be the vehicle to use for the next 20 years," Kraft said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/13/russia-delays-manned-space-launch-until-nov-12/#ixzz1Xt2KlPnO

God hes a moron, 2013 cant come fast enough.

This article is just the tip of the iceberg.

What do you mean?

Nothing happens in a vacuum. News releases are being given to the press about how much "better" the space program will be without the shuttle while everyone at the MSC is playing out the "what ifs". The official story was always, "the Russians will have to take care of it" while everyone knows the Russians actually do not have very advanced tech. The money that was "expected" to be spent by the US to fund the Russian portion was VASTLY understated. JSC knew the Russians would jack the price up as soon as the shuttle program was dead, which is exactly what they did.

Obama also sold this grandiose plan of "private development" where the space program was transitioned into private hands. Some money was spread around half a dozen companies to make a show. But the reality was that the instant the US govt said "we don't have a mission." the private programs would die.

It was obvious to all "real" people at JSC that the Obama plan was to kill the Manned Space Program. The consensus was that it was to destroy the Bush legacy to go to Mars. The speeches Obama gave about how he supported the space program occurred AFTER the officials of the White House had sent out feelers about "How much can we save if we cut ...?" Money was issued to "Repair the damage caused by Hurricane Ike" but the specific buildings which housed specific programs were targeted as "more important", etc.

There are a lot of complex "mind games" going on between the Russians and the US. The US is in a crack and the Russians know it and are making the US pay. I am not quite sure if the Russians know how much they can gouge before Obama pulls the plug and uses the Russians as the excuse.

... then there are the politics ....

IF,,AMERICA KEEPS ON HATING,,,WE WILL DIE AS A NATION!

I am SO sick of the hate being cast against our President..
I don't give a damn WHO HE IS,,HE IS OUR CHOSEN LEADER WHO THE WORLD FOLLOWS CLOSELY..

And NOW,,,in THIS TIME RIGHT HERE,,,
Our worst recession since the great depression,,WHEN WE NEED our Government to MAKE THINGS HAPPEN and MOVE.

WE THE PEOPLE SAY CUT SPENDING..

WHERE WERE YOU ALL AT IN THE OTHER PRESIDENTS TERMS YELLING CUT SPENDING?

In every Presidents term in our history,,one of the BIGGEST windfalls to help us out of our bad times,,was TO SPEND MONEY,,GOVERNMENT MONIES to MAKE PROGRAMS,,and START UPWARDS....

But its NOT like WE"RE EVER GOING TO STOP TAXES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SO WHY ""NOW""DO THE REPUBLIC INS WANT TO SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT FROM HELPING HERE?

Everyone I talk to says,,,I DON"T WANT MY MONIES BEING SPENT ON THAT

and THAT,,cover MANY ITEMS,,,
But who the HELL got this anger all started and swinging out..
TALK RADIO and all the slam dunk one liner words from NAZISM,,
as they Preach out false truths THAT AMERICA BELIEVES,,

CORPORATIONS OUR BEHIND ALL THIS,,,MONEY IS THE ROOT,,and THIS SHOW BOATING OF THE PAID POLITITIONS STANDS,,,IS INSANE,,for where it is TAKING US DOWN TO..

WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN THE RED AS THE GOVERNMENT KEEPS SPENDING BECAUSE WE KEEP GROWING AND THEY HAVE TAKEN MONIES FROM THE SS FUNDS
AND I'M SURE MANY OTHER FUNDS ,,TO USE FOR WHAT?

ALLOF THIS IS "NOT" NEW,,,,,NOR IS IT ANYTHING MUCH THAT ANY AND EVERY PRESIDENT HAS DONE..

BUT THE HATE FOR HIM,,,FROM MONEY OWNERS AND LOBBIESTS,,HAVE THE PEOPLE AGAINST THE PEOPLE..and spreading out HATE for our LEADER?

GOOD GOD People wake-up...

wE'VE LASTED 200 YEARS doing this,,,AND now ,,,right now it has to stop,,,please!!!!

How many republicans who STOOD FAST,,on the debt ceiling not being raised(FIRST TIME IN OVER THIRTY YEARS TO BE AN ISSUE)
HOW many of THEM,,have LARGE INVESTSMENTS IN GOLD????
YOU DON'T KNOW DO YOU??? ME NETHER,,,,WHY IS THAT????
Because IF THEY DID,,,THEY GOT RICH OVER THAT PLAY..
AND WE"RE ALL THEIR DUMMIES!!!!!!
And THATS just ONE small area to review....

Congress, Senate, Military, Nasa, CIA EVERYONE was pissed off at Obama for killing the space shuttle program. The only ones who supported it were the private businesses who were going to start the space tourism process(who were\are also MAJOR donors to Obama.)

He's not my President. Hs a piece of trash that needs to be put out on the street. He has only made ONE good decision(Execution of Osama Bin Laden) while in office and it wasn't even all him, all's he did was sign at the dotted line, the military did all the work, intelligence and the rest of the leg work.

I'm not gonna repost your whole rant but all I have to say is that the space program is one area that should not have been touched.

NASA had a plan called Orion and Constellation where some new heavy lift rockets were almost completely designed and tested to replace the Shuttle till the new generation shuttle was completed.

Obama trashed the heavy lift rocket wasting 11.5 billion. Instead of just saying, we'll keep using the shuttle for a little while longer till be get a better replacement for these other rocket programs, he just ended the shuttle program anyway which was scheduled to end. His decisions wasted a huge amount of R&D and cost tens of thousands of high tech jobs (after promising the youth of America to look to these programs for future high tech jobs.)

Senator Kay Baily Hutchinson got congress to fund another shuttle mission to drag the program out (IMHO in the hopes the next president would not kill the Manned Space Program.

A cost analysis of the US space program shows advances in tech that have put us at the forefront of science and tech for fifty years. We then gave the tech to China who is playing "catch-up" very very fast. Our space program has more than paid for itself.

It is very sad that politics appear to be the controlling factors at NASA at the expense of jobs, technology growth, basic R&D, and national security.

BHO is a token, bought in, mouthpiece.
He will do as he is told or, he wouldn't have been set in as pres.
They are all following the elitist one-world plan.

All the experts say the shuttles would have worked, lasted, held up and done their jobs for atleast another 20+ years, they should have been kept in service until a replacement was in service. They should have NEVER been cancelled EVER. Just another example of someone with no experience and way over his head, but hey the guy is a great public speaker.............

@OP-the article doesn't blame the Obama regime. It could have been anyone in the NASA beaurocracy for all we know from this article. I have no problems with calling out the Obama regime (or any other), but you should at least have some decent evidence pointing the blame on the Bamster. Regardless, NASA is overpriced and outdated. Let it go away and let people who can actually afford it handle it.

Ummmmmm, actually it did AND Obama was the one who gave the shuttle progam the ax.

"The political and budgetary rush to scrap the shuttles was so strong that all the risks inherent in relying upon any single source, much less the Russian system in particular, were downplayed or ignored," he told FoxNews.com.

The article doesn't even mention the word "Obama". The quote you pulled isn't an indictment of Obama specifically at all. For all we know, it could be just a bunch of mid-low level beaurocrats who are behind it. Again, I don't mind blaming Obama if you can prove it. I just don't see it here. NASA has been a failing program for a long time now. Rumors of cuts have been around for years now. This decision could have been in the works long ago for all we know from the info in the article.

That makes the potential for an unmanned International Space Station very real -- and NASA could have seen it coming, said Christopher C. Kraft, the former director of NASA's Manned Spaceflight Center.

NASA believed the Soyuz craft would keep the International Space Station manned and supplied while the nascent commercial space industry in the U.S. developed replacement spacecraft. But Russia has encountered a disastrous string of issues that may make that policy untenable.




....umm,,,NASA believed, NASA could have seen it coming

yet NASA still is where NASA Is...


so,, what NASA didnt see itself ,, the PRESIDENT should have?

interesting,,, So we should make sure to only elect astronauts to office from now on,, IM guessing,,

Are you for real?? I'm betting your the same people that complain about there being to much spending in Washington right? I for once don't care about if NASA is shutdown for the next ten years if that means that the spending is lower, if people don't have to worry about having a job and paying there bills and we as a nation could pay our debt. You should be more worried about people getting jobs and our debt getting lower instead of worrying about something so meaningless as NASA shutting down. Do you know how much it cost to send a shuttle to space? The Space Shuttle Endeavour, the orbiter built to replace the Space Shuttle Challenger, cost approximately $1.7 billion. That's $1.7 BILLIONS dollars that could have gone some where else where its really needed. So who cares if the next few years NASA ain't around I don't. Good for Obama standing up and cutting things that we really don't need. Financing NASA right now is like a family that's barely making ends meet financing a new vacation home in Florida just because they want a vacation home. Don't matter what Obama does you're still ain't going to like what he do so who cares really. Your going to complain if he does it right or wrong... He Killed Osama Binladen and people come up with that hes not really dead and that Obama conspiring with the middle east to bring us to our knees. Really if he was so anty america wouldn't he have already done something about doing such thing instead of trying to help us get out of the rut that the Idiot that was before him left us in.

The numbers come straight from NASA'S web page.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/shuttle_faq.html#1

You are completely misreading the statement. "NASA could have seen it coming" (IF THEY WEREN'T CAUGHT COMPLETELY BY SURPRISE THAT THE PRESIDENT WOULD KILL THE MANNED SPACE PROGRAM)

The President did see it coming because he is the one who killed the program.

The instant NASA lost the ability to launch and had to rely on Russia, NASA saw the problems, potential problems, obvious increases in cost, etc.

Everybody in the business knows Obama killed the Manned Space Program. His reasons may be clear to some and obscure to others but the fact that he killed the program is not in question. The fact that he lied to everyone in the program before he got elected about supporting the program is not in question either.

why is that?

EXACTLY!

everyone agrees we have economic problems in this country and everyone can point fingers at what people arent doing right without having any solution as to what the right thing would be

OR

everyone has their own agenda/priority regarding what is expendable and wasteful and unnecessary vs what is 'untouchable'