Silver birthday for the shuttle

Challenger exploded 73 seconds after being launched on January 28, 1986 ( Photo: AP )

On April 14, 1981, when the Columbia - the first shuttle in the world - landed safely after a 37-round flight on Earth orbit, a reporter asked to command Apollo 12 Pete Conrad: ' America was Keep up with Russia's space program? ', the astronaut who set foot on this moon cheerfully replied:' Catch up? We jumped over their heads. '

' Now everyone admits that this (the shuttle program) is not the right direction ' - Michael Griffin

Mr. Conrad could not have expected that 25 years later, the US had to suspend shuttle flights for safety reasons and had to spend tens of millions of dollars 'to buy tickets' Russian Soyuz to bring astronauts and cargo. his chemistry to the International Space Station (ISS).

But the astronaut Conrad has nothing to be ashamed of because even Werher von Braun, the American 'rocket' ancestor, also misjudged the power of the shuttle. He was too optimistic to predict the US space shuttle would land on the moon in the early 1980s.

Great ambition

To be fair, the US space industry has released the most complex series of shuttles, using a technology that many countries crave but have not yet done. The former Soviet Union also had a similar space shuttle program called Buran. But this program soon went bankrupt.

Before Apollo landed on the moon (1969), in October 1968, NASA began to study the shuttle. The Space Shuttle Program (called the Aerospace Transport System - STS) was officially launched on January 5, 1972 with President Nixon's statement, under which NASA will deploy a space shuttle system. use many times.

The selection on April 12, 1981 - turned 20 years after Russia brought astronaut Yuri Gagarin to Earth orbit - to launch the first shuttle to show that America was determined to regain the number one position. For many years, five types of American shuttles (Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavor) have proved their superior capabilities - in addition to carrying 5-8 astronauts, while the Russian Soyuz only carrying up to 3 people - launching satellites from Earth orbit, building (most) ISS stations, repairing the Hubble space telescope, bringing about 20 tons of equipment from Earth orbit, etc. .

5 types of shuttles (from left to right): Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantic, Endeavor

In the past 25 years, 114 shuttle trains have been launched into space but there are 2 turns into disaster, each disaster killing exactly 7 astronauts. Since the last accident occurred on 1-2-2003 (the Columbia broke into pieces on the way back to Earth), the shuttle flights were suspended. Recently, in August last year, the Atlantis made the 114th flight also had the same problem as the Columbia, but fortunately did not end in the disaster, making future flights including 28 flights from now until 2010 - the deadline for the shuttle program to end on the orders of President Bush to switch to the new space program - becomes fluttering.

Extreme reality

Despite spending a quarter of a century, what kept NASA's most elite engineers at bay was that they could not claim to pass the testing phase because of the harsh reality they thought. One of the main reasons is that they cannot guarantee 100% safety of astronauts' lives. Safety of the last 28 scheduled flights of the STS program - according to an article posted on website idlewords.com - is 'year of eating, year of losing'. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured out since the Columbia disaster but NASA engineers have not solved some technical problems that made Challenger crew (1986) and Columbia (2003) crew dead.

STS program expects to launch 30-40 flights a year, but in fact the most released year (1985) only 9 flights were made. The STS program has been heavily criticized not only technically but also financially. According to NASA's initial calculations, each flight costs only about 10-20 million USD. In fact, NASA admits that it costs an average of no less than $ 55 million for each launch! By 2005, NASA had spent $ 145 billion with 114 launches. From now until 2010, it is expected to cost an additional 174 million USD but this figure may increase.

Although not as expected, the STS program is still maintained by NASA for an important reason: the ISS station will never be completed if it stops shuttle flights. ISS is the offspring of the Cold War. It was born to ensure the regular presence of the United States in aerospace, especially in the context of Russia's space program, which was difficult because its financial capacity was not as strong as in the Soviet Union. It is expected that the ISS station must be completed in February 2004 but now, this deadline is delayed until 30-9-2010. The US cannot quit ISS, so it is impossible to ignore the STS program.

Trade secrets

After 25 years of making shuttle flights, which are the largest, most advanced vehicle - both transporting and carrying many US-only devices - have traveled between the earth and the ISS station, now only Russia It is possible to fulfill this mission because the American shuttles do not guarantee the safety of astronauts.

Last week, NASA Director Michael Griffin confirmed that NASA would continue to purchase services from the Russian Soyuz to transport American astronauts and cargo to the ISS until the station was completed. Reason: After the Columbia shuttle disaster in early 2003, shuttle flights were temporarily suspended, pending safety improvements. However, Mr. Griffin did not say how much money each time he bought a Soyuz flight. He just said: 'It's a trade secret'. Previously, there were many billionaires spent 20 million USD to go on Soyuz train to visit the ISS station.

Trong Nghia combined