Hurry Up and Wait

NASA has released the schedule for the final ten space shuttle missions, claiming that the program will wrap up with the final mission in May-June 2010. But let's think about this for a second. The current plan counts on launching five missions in 2008 (three down, two to go) and five in 2009. This will be a tall feat to accomplish with just three orbiters. It's even harder when one considers all of the challenges the shuttle workforce must overcome to put each massively-complex machine into orbit. Add to that the Congressional pressure to fly the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the space station.

What does it all add up to? A gut feeling that we'll be wrapping up the shuttle program in FY11 instead of FY10. Unless NASA insists on a hard cutoff at the end of FY10 that would ground all unflown missions. Hopefully the schedule pressures will not get the best of the shuttle team, particularly at a time when working on the shuttle program is perceived to be a step below working for Project Constellation.