Ira Flatow, on NPR today, had an hour on the future of spaceflight.
Participants were Sally Ride (currently prof. of physics at UCSD and CEO of
Imaginary Lines), Andrew Chaikin (author of A Man on the Moon) and Brian
Chase (President of NSS).
At the beginning of the hour, Andrew related that he had heard directly
from Sean O'Keefe (who he described as "an impressive guy") that GWB will,
not later that 1 February 2004, announce a new goal for the US space
agency. This will not be a destination, not an Apollo-style challenge to go
somewhere and return safely by some date. Rather, it will be to develop
capabilities that will enable a broad spectrum of activities. Also, Andrew
said that the plan will be to do this within "existing" funding levels, and
after the shuttle and space station problems are behind us. (I put quoutes
around -existing- because I couldn't remember if that was the word he
actually used.)
There was a lot of discussion of excessive space-program costs. But, as
you might expect, it was very NASA-centric. I recall no mention of ways to
reduce those costs.
Chris W
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