Shuttle News: November 2005 Archives

Bush's Space Plan in Danger - Shuttle Program's Deficit May Mean Far Fewer Flights, Washington Post

"A large deficit in NASA's troubled shuttle program threatens to seriously delay and possibly cripple President Bush's space exploration initiative unless the number of planned flights is cut virtually in half or the White House agrees to add billions of dollars to the human spaceflight budget."

Earlier NASA Watch postings:

- Griffin's Lunch With Andy Card
- Is OMB Considering Shuttle Termination?
- White House Memo Calls For Slashing Remaining Space Shuttle Flights
- NASA Internal Memo from Michael Griffin to William Gerstenmaier: In-Guide Option for FY 2007 Budget
- Kicking Costs Down The Road
- $5-6 Billion Shortfall? Old News

"... the end result is, we have to figure out the runout for the '07 budget, and we know we need about $6 B more than we have in the budget, for whatever set of historical reasons, which now do not matter. "

Editor's note: At today's shuttle press conference NBC's Jay Barbaree read an email from a retired engineer which stated that the only shuttle mission flown with a white, painted external tank was STS-1. That is incorrect. If you look at this image "Space Shuttle Columbia OV (101) is in launch configuration on the pad in preparation for STS-2." you will see a white external tank. An astute reader also notes that this original NASA PAO caption gets Columbia's tail number wrong too.

Editor's note: The following is taken from a Powerpoint presentation circulating at NASA KSC. The quotes are from a shuttle summit held at NASA KSC last week.

Editor's note: Wayne Hale chaired the 17 November PRCB (Program Requirements Control Board). Some people were ready to make their presentations at this meeting. Others were not.

Editor's note: The PRCB (Program Requirements Control Board) met last Thursday. As a result of this meeting, all future shuttle launch dates contained in the directive issued by the PRCB to update the FDRD (Flight Definition and Requirements Directive) are "TBD".

Editor's note: Last week a CR (Change Request) wasapproved outside the PRCB (Program Requirements Control Board) which directs an orbiter swap for STS-121and STS-115 - a swap which had beenknown for a long time. This CR alsomoves STS-116 to Endeavour. While the CR directs products to be generated and released, itdoesnotupdatethe FDRD (Flight Definition and Requirements Directive) - even though the CR had launch dates contained within it.A formal FDRD update is scheduledfor either the 10 Nov or 17 Nov PRCB.

PRCB Tackles STS-121 Launch Date