Quote:
Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB
It's well known in the aerospace community that the current space shuttle is getting ready to be retired. A new space shuttle is being designed. Cheerfulgreek, as you can imagine, this will NOT be cheap. Also, in case you missed it, NASA has been doing research on Mars, just not with people on the ground there. It's even been in the news recently. We have learned a lot from the space program, but in these times when we can't afford to run our country on this planet, I think cutting space trips is a wise decision.
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Yes, this is correct. I was watching a documentary this past weekend on the space program, called "Space Shuttle Disaster." Like Peppy said, the shuttles are being retired. After the Columbia disaster, NASA (well the Columbia disaster advisory board) re-evaluated why they were taking people up in space. So they are coming out with new "shuttles" that are going to be designed like the early Apollo rockets were. They will have one "shuttle" designed to carry cargo, like things they need to repair the international space station with, and one to carry humans.
The whole idea of redesigning these rockets was to prevent human death like what happened with Columbia or with Challenger.
NASA's funding has been cut before, with the Nixon administration and it wasn't truly until George W. Bush (our current president) that NASA gained more funding for human space exploration.
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