Five decades of experience

The retirement of the Shuttle in 2011 left something of a void. While any operational experience can be learned from, Shuttle operations will have little application directly to the proposed vehicles that will follow. The Shuttle system and hardware were unique and the new designs have more in common with the Apollo Command and Service Module than Shuttle orbiters. However, many of the lessons learned from the Shuttle-Міг program did have direct application to ISS operations.

For those vehicles which will eventually follow the Shuttle, a whole new learning curve might need to be scaled. By the time the new vehicles fly, those who were around for most of the Shuttle program will probably have retired, losing core experience that, like the Apollo era, will be hard to replace. There is, however, one significant difference between the transition from the Apollo era to the Shuttle era and the one from the Shuttle era to whatever replaces it.

In the 1970s, relatively few former astronauts moved to managerial roles in the space agency or the industry. Most of the engineers and managers who were at NASA during Apollo moved on to work on the Shuttle program, at least in its early years, bringing with them valued experience. A generation later, things were much different. The industry was much larger, most of the original employees at NASA had retired, and there were far more opportunities for former astronauts to move across to managerial roles, both inside and outside the agency, within the broader space program.

At the end of the Apollo era, many of the veteran astronauts, managers, and engineers decided to leave the program. In contrast, many of those who flew or managed the Shuttle are now in key positions within the space industry, working on a variety of new programs or projects including those contractors developing the Shuttle replacement. With the end of the Shuttle and some years before its replacement arrives, it is likely that more former Shuttle astronauts will retire. It will be interesting to monitor the career path of the ex-Shuttle pilots and mission specialists who climb the corporate ladder or advance in the administration of NASA and leading contractors in the coming decades. In Europe, former ESA astronauts are also beginning to move to higher administrative roles. In contrast, trying to track the progress of cosmonauts after they stop flying was always (and continues to be) difficult. Most of the military cosmonauts retire on a pension,

Table 2.1. New mission entries (September 2006-December 2012).

2006

Soyuz TMA-9 STS-116

ISS Expedition 14; Visiting Crew 11 ISS 12A.1 P5 Truss

2007

Soyuz TMA-10 STS-117 STS-118 Soyuz TMA-11 STS-120

ISS Expedition 15; Visiting Crew 12 ISS 13A S3 Truss and S4 Truss ISS 13A.1 S5 Truss ISS Expedition 16; Visiting Crew 13 ISS 10A Node 2 Harmony

2008

STS-122 STS-123 Soyuz TMA-12 STS-124 Shenzhou 7 Soyuz TMA-13 STS-126

ISS IE ESA Columbus Laboratory

ISS 1J/A JAXA Kibo Laboratory and Dextre

ISS Expedition 17; Visiting Crew 14

ISS 1J JAXA Kibo Pressurized Module and RMS

First Chinese EVA

ISS Expedition 18; Visiting Crew 15

ISS ULF2 Logistics

2009

STS-119 Soyuz TMA-14 STS-125 Soyuz TMA-15 STS-127 STS-128 Soyuz TMA-16 STS-129 Soyuz TMA-17

ISS 15A S6 Truss

ISS Expedition 19/20; Visiting Crew 16

Hubble Service Mission 4 (last mission to the Hubble Telescope) ISS Expedition 20/21 (six-person capability)

ISS 2J/A JAXA Kibo Research Module ISS 17A Final Solar Array Sections ISS Expedition 21/22; Visiting Crew 17 ISS ULF 3 Logistics ISS Expedition 22/23

2010

STS-130 Soyuz TMA-18 STS-131 STS-132 Soyuz TMA-19 Soyuz TMA-M Soyuz TMA-20

ISS 20A Node 3 Tranquillity and Cupola Module ISS Expedition 23/24 ISS 19A Logistics

ISS ULF4 Logistics and Russian Mini Research Module Rassvet ISS Expedition 24/25

ISS Expedition 25/26 (maiden flight of new Soyuz variant)

ISS Expedition 26/27

2011

STS-133 Soyuz TMA-21 STS-134

Soyuz TMA-02M STS-135 Soyuz TMA-22 Soyuz TMA-03M

ISS ULF5 and Permanent Multipurpose Logistics Module Leonardo ISS Expedition 27/28

ISS ULF6 and Enhanced ISS Boom Assembly (EIBA)

ISS Expedition 28/29

ISS ULF7 and AMS-2 (the final Space Shuttle flight)

ISS Expedition 29/30 ISS Expedition 30/31

2012

Soyuz TMA-04M Shenzhou 9 Soyuz TMA-05M Soyuz TMA-06M Soyuz TMA-07M

ISS Expedition 31/32

First Chinese space station crew; first Chinese female in space ISS Expedition 32/33 ISS Expedition 33/34 ISS Expedition 34/35

while the civilian engineers resume work at Energiya until they retire. A few, Uke Alexei Leonov and Vladimir Titov, secured positions in leading Russian corporate businesses.

Former NASA astronauts, including Bob Crippen, Frank Culbertson, Bill Lenoir, Brian O’Connor, Loren Shriver, Dick Truly, and more recently Charles Bolden, Mike Coat, and others have made the transition from the astronaut office to the management side of the agency and then stepped across into industry. Their personal experiences from flying in space have been applied back into the program, but at a much higher level. It will be interesting to monitor whether such moves have a lasting legacy for the future space program.