And then there were five. As NASA prepares for the next space shuttle launch February 7th, the reality that the program is coming to an end is really beginning to sink in. And with word that the Obama administration is nixing funding to the Constellation program, there are a lot of questions about what, if anything, will fill the gap once the shuttle is gone. The administration says NASA will actually get more money in a budget plan to be revealed Monday, but critics say that increase will not be large enough to cover the costs of Constellation, the program that was supposed to get the U.S. back to the moon.
Even prior to this news, there was talk about a five year gap between the shuttle and Constellation programs. Now without Constellation on the table, it’s unclear what NASA’s future would hold. Some have suggested private companies step into human spaceflight, providing a sort of space taxi. There are companies interested in doing this. But when we did a story last August on a NASA program designed to help such companies, it sounded like the idea was far from fruition. In an interview with Fox News, former Apollo astronaut Walt Cunningham said of commercial attempts, “They have no idea what kind of problems they’re going to encounter.” Still, another astronaut, Leroy Chiao, who was on an Obama commission reviewing NASA, says something has to be done. “If NASA’s budget is going to be more or less flat for the next few years, then we cannot sustain what’s been going on,” Chiao says.
The mood here at Johnson Space Center is somber. A lot of people are wondering what will happen to their jobs after the shuttle program ends, which is scheduled to wrap up by the end of this year. Much of Clear Lake, the community that surrounds Johnson Space Center depends upon NASA employees to keep it thriving. What happens to all of them remains to be seen.