We're Here to Go
Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 10:58PM 
NASA Administrator, Michael Griffin, in white
When NASA Administrator, Michael Griffin, can publicly state that, “The single overarching goal of human space flight is the human settlement of the solar system, and eventually beyond,” we have come a long way.
When my grandfather was with NASA, his pet name for the Space Shuttle was ‘the Space Truck’ or simply ‘the Truck’. As a teen, he explained to me how NASA had conceived of the Space Shuttle as a people mover. The Space Shuttle would have been much more affordable and practical if it only had to accommodate human passengers. It was meant to be a ‘Space Bus’, but in the 1970s, Congress was not receptive to the idea of funding space colonization. That was too Sci-Fi for most US politicians to embrace or fund. But a much more expensive “Truck” that could haul payloads, well that was something Congressmen could wrap their heads around. Once again, relating the conversations with my grandfather — it would have been much safer and extremely more economical to lift satellites and heavy payload for construction of the International Space Station on, to use Ralph’s words, “big dumb rockets”. Then the Space Shuttle’s dedicated role as a people mover would be undistracted by other tasks. Under this scenario the Space Shuttle would have been less expensive to develop, build and maintain. And payload launches could be handled by unmanned flights, human life would not have to be put at risk. Apparently the political realities of getting budgetary approval from Congress necessitated the compromise.
ON A RELATED NOTE…
While the US is distracted with our own presidential election and domestic economic issues, the launch of China’s first space walk mission was barely covered here in the US.
