Space Station Solution at Hand: Political Courage Required

Surprise, surprise, folks. President Obama's "tear it down and rip it up" approach to our aerospace and science programs led to the downing of America's successful space shuttle program without a new program on the horizon.

Instead, Obama's government decided, let's abandon the proven NASA value of "redundancy" --having at least one backup for any component or requirement--and let's put all our eggs, and taxpayers' money, into the Russian basket. Great idea, that, all the syncophants lined up to intone as they genuflected.

Not a great idea, as the August 24 loss of the Soyuz rocket promptly proved. In the wake of the loss of the space station Progress resupply ship, Russia's launch calendar for manned space station flights is on the skids.

Now NASA officials are talking about the possibility that the space station will have to be abandoned. After continuous occupation since 2000, the space station, begun in 1988, might become a ghost facility, managed from the ground.

And that, my friends, is ridiculous. The International Space Station is the towering achievement of our space era, and it, as well as taxpayers, deserves more than a rolling over to Russian problems.

However, we've long since lost any command of our own space destiny. Why did we accept that? Future historians will, no doubt, have a field day discussing how and why the world's most successful space-faring nation folded its cards and slipped away from the manned space exploration table.

There is a short-term solution to save the space station as a viable, operational facility. Just stop deactivating one of the shuttles--all of which are now museum-bound--and reactivate it.

Then put a commander and pilot onboard; fly to the space station. Plan to leave those folks onboard until they can hitch a ride home via a Russian vehicle.

NASA has assured us there's adequate supplies up there until sometime in 2012. There's room up there for two more astronauts.

Give the Russians a chance to get flying again. In the meantime, there'll be another option to get the astronauts and cosmonauts home: the old, reliable space shuttle.

Should flights via the Russian vehicles resume, NASA could leave the shuttle parked at the space station in case of emergency. If needed, there's a ride home waiting right outside the door.

It would be much better to leave a shuttle at the ready at the space station than just plonk its dead body into a museum. It would provide safety redundancy for crews at the station, and, logically, would make sense.

President Obama, why not? Show some political courage, and some support for America's space achievements, and provide the direction to put one shuttle back into flight status.

Space Shuttle Discovery Lifts Off; Headed for Space Station with

UPDATE: Blue skies and clear sailing marked the successful launch of Space Shuttle Discovery and her seven-member crew from historic Launch Pad 39-A at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. A flawless countdown preceded liftoff, which marked the 35th flight of Discovery and the 123rd Space Shuttle mission. (The numbers don't always match in sequence because flight manifests often shuttle missions around.)

Original story follows.

The crew of Space Shuttle Discovery is strapped into their vehicle as the countdown toward a 5:02 p.m. EDT launch proceeds smoothly at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-124 is the second of three flights that will ferry and install  components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory on the International Space Station.

They're also taking components to help with fixes of the Russian-provided toilet. The crew's primary mission is to  Kibo’s large Japanese Pressurized Module, or JPM, and its remote manipulator system, or RMS.

The RMS consists of two roboticarms that support operations outside of Kibo. The lab's logistics module, or JLM,which was installed in a temporary location during STS-123 in March, will be attachedto the new lab.

Discovery's 14-day flight carries the largest payload ever delivered  to the station and will include three spacewalks. The shuttle also will deliver Astronaut Gregory E. Chamitoff , a Mission Specialist, to a duty tour aboard the station.

He will take Astronaut Garrett E.
Reisman's place as ; Expedition 17 flight engineer.; Reisman will come home with the STS-124 crew in two weeks. Chamitoff will fly home aboard Endeavour on the STS-126 mission in November.

The rest of the STS-124 crew includes Michael E. Fossum,; mission specialist; Kenneth T. Ham, pilot; Mark E. Kelly, commander; Karen L. Nyberg, Ronald J. Garan and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Akihiko Hoshide, all mission specialists.