“LET US CONTINUE THE JOURNEY”

After much anticipation, President George W. Bush finally addressed the nation from NASA HQ, Washington DC, on January 14, 2003. The speech that he made was the culmination of months of work by the White House staff and numerous other agencies to give NASA new goals for the future. This speech was thought by many to be the equivalent of President Kennedy’s speech made on May 25, 1961. That speech sent Project Apollo to the Moon, but George Bush’s presentation was much less dynamic. The highlights, as they related to ISS, were as follows.

The President was introduced by NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe. The President talked from the auditorium, and Michael Foale via a video link from ISS:

“America is proud of our space programme. The risk-takers and visionaries of this agency [NASA] have expanded human knowledge, have revolutionised our understanding of the Universe and produced technological advances that have benefited all of humanity. Inspired by all that has come before, and guided by clear objectives, today we set a new course for America’s space programme. We will give NASA a new focus and vision for future exploration. We will build new ships to carry Man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the Moon and to prepare for new journeys to the worlds beyond our own…

Our programmes and vehicles for exploring space have brought us far, and they have served us well. The Space Shuttle has flown more than 100 missions. It has been used to conduct important research and to increase the sum of human knowledge. Shuttle crews and the scientists and engineers who support them have helped build the International Space Station… Yet, for all these successes, much remains for us to explore and learn.

In the past 30 years, no human being has set foot on another world, or ventured farther up into space than 386 miles [621.1 km], roughly the distance from Washington DC to Boston, Massachusetts. America has not developed a new vehicle to advance human exploration in space in nearly a quarter century. It is time for America to take the next steps…

Today I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across our Solar System. We will begin the effort quickly, using existing pro­grammes and personnel. We’ll make steady progress, one mission, one voyage, one landing at a time…

Our first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 2010. We will finish what we have started. We will meet our obligations to our 15 international partners on this project. We will focus our future research aboard this station on the long-term effects of space travel on human biology. The environment of space is hostile to human beings. Radiation and weightlessness [microgravity] pose dangers to human health. And we have much to learn about their long-term effects before human crews can venture through the vast voids of space for months at a time. Research onboard the station and here on Earth will help us better understand and overcome the obstacles that limit exploration. Through these efforts, we will develop the skills and techniques necessary to sustain further space exploration. To meet this goal, we will return the Space Shuttle to flight as soon as possible, consistent with safety concerns and the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The Shuttle’s chief purpose over the next several years will be to help finish assembly of the International Space Station. In 2010, the Space Shuttle, after nearly 30 years of duty, will be retired from service…

Our second goal is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, by 2008, and to conduct the first manned mission no later than 2014. The Crew Exploration Vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the Space Station after the Shuttle is retired. But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the first spacecraft of its kind since the Apollo Command Module…

Our third goal is to return to the Moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions beyond… Using the Crew Exploration Vehicle, we will undertake extended human missions to the Moon as early as 2015, with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods of time… With the experi­ence and knowledge gained on the Moon, we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond…

We do not know where this journey will end. Yet we know this: human beings are headed into the cosmos… The vision I outline today is a journey, not a race. And I call on other nations to join this journey, in the spirit of co-operation and friendship…

Achieving these goals requires a long-term commitment. NASA’s current five – year budget is $86 billion. Most of the funding we need for new endeavours will come from re-allocating $11 billion from within that budget. We need some new resources, however. I will call upon Congress to increase NASA’s budget by roughly a billion dollars spread over the next five years. This increase, along with the re-focusing of our space agency, is a solid beginning to meet the challenges and the goals that we set today. This is only the beginning. Future funding decisions will be guided by the progress that we make in achieving these goals. We begin this journey knowing that space travel brings great risks. The loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia was less than one year ago…

Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reasons we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit.

So let us continue the journey.’’

The President’s new plan left NASA with a dilemma. In the wake of the STS-107 tragedy the remaining three Shuttle orbiters had begun a rolling programme of 2.5-year refits to update their flight systems. Endeavour had begun her refit in July 2003. Discovery would be next, and Atlantis last. However, with the new plan to retire the Shuttle in 2010, there was no longer sufficient time for Atlantis to complete its 2.5-year refit. Therefore, NASA decided to only refit Endeavour and Discovery. Atlantis would now be retired in 2008, and held in the Orbiter Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Centre, where she would be cannibalised and her systems would be used to keep the other two orbiters flying. The decision would leave only two orbiters to complete the construction of ISS.

Within a matter of days the true cost of the President’s “Vision for Space Exploration’’ and the new Crew Exploration Vehicle, which quickly assumed the name “Constellation’’, became clear. NASA cancelled a Shuttle service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, although this was later re-instated, and a plan to build a new science centre to support ISS was “postponed”, by at least one year.

Meanwhile, it was estimated that meeting all of the CAIB’s recommendations and returning the Shuttle to flight would cost a further $280 million through 2004, but

that figure was expected to rise as details of the true amount of work required to do so was identified. NASA’s figures were

Launch system modifications External Tank modifications Additional launch camera coverage Thermal Protection System repair kit New Engineering Safety Centre

Consideration was also being given to using an uncrewed Shuttle derivate to carry large amounts of cargo to ISS, alongside the proposed new Orbital Space Plane (OSP), which would have been launched on one of the new Extended Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs): Delta-IV or Atlas-V. The Orbital Space Plane would now be replaced by the Crew Exploration Vehicle.

While the press and media sunk their teeth into the contents of the President’s speech and produced articles depending on their political points of view, the station’s Expedition-8 crew continued with the routine of keeping ISS functioning. Much of the next week was spent loading rubbish into Progress M-48. Kaleri also replaced an electronics box on the Elektron oxygen generator. When the crew reported a noisy air filter on the Elektron system a replacement was added to the Progress M1-11 manifest, along with a replacement vent hose for Destiny’s window. Progress M-48 was undocked from Zvezda’s wake at 03:36, January 28, and was subsequently commanded to enter the atmosphere, where it burned up.

As the first anniversary of the loss of STS-107 approached, Wayne Hale, Deputy Shuttle Program Manager, sent an e-mail to staff at JSC. It read, in part:

“Last year we dropped the torch through our complacency, our arrogance, self-assurance, sheer stupidity, and through our continuing attempt to please everyone. Seven of our friends and colleagues paid the ultimate price for our failure. Yet the nation is giving us another chance… We must not fail… The penalty is heavy; you can never completely repay it… Do good work. Pay attention. Question everything. Be thorough. Don’t end up with regrets.’’