The head of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Michael Griffin, has acknowledged that the Space Shuttle program, along with the International Space Station (ISS) and nearly all of America’s crewed space programs over the past three decades, have been missteps.
Griffin stated that NASA lost its direction in the 1970s when the agency halted the Apollo missions to the Moon to focus on developing the Space Shuttle and the space station, which primarily functioned as satellites in low Earth orbit.
He admitted that this was an incorrect path, and that it is essential for Americans to shift their focus while minimizing the impact on the current space program.
The Space Shuttle program has claimed the lives of 14 astronauts since its first flight in 1982. According to Roger Pielke Jr., an expert at the University of Colorado, NASA has spent approximately $150 billion on this space program since its inception in 1971. The total cost for the space station, until its completion in 2010 or later, could exceed $100 billion, although some other countries will share this financial burden.
Griffin mentioned that the U.S. has only recently begun to revive its national space program. Last week, he announced that NASA plans to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2018 in a spacecraft that resembles the Apollo capsule.
The goal of returning to the Moon was outlined by President Bush in 2004, before Griffin took on the role of NASA Administrator. According to Bush, the Space Shuttle would be retired by 2010.
Griffin has stated that he views the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station as being misguided. He presented to Congress earlier this year that the Space Shuttle was a “serious mistake” and that the International Space Station does not justify the costs, risks, and challenges associated with human spaceflight.
Joe Rothenberg, who oversaw NASA’s crewed space program from 1995 to 2001, defended the space program as valuable lessons for understanding how to operate in space, but he believes it should have been conducted in a different manner.
