Michael Griffin for faster development of Space Shuttle replacement

Michael Griffin for faster development of Space Shuttle replacement

The chief of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Michael D. Griffin has just taken over his position and he already has big plans for the American Space Organization. He is pushing forward an ambitious plan to speedup the development of the next generation Space Vehicle that would replace the aging Space Shuttle.

If his plans are successful, we might see the results within the next 5 years with a new spaceship ready to venture into the space with its crew. This time period is at least 4 years lesser than the original schedule. The reasons behind these plans are the problems Space Shuttle is facing with its reliability. It has not taken off ever since the Columbia incident, which killed the entire crew onboard while coming back to the planet earth.

In fact, the latest Space Shuttle mission has already suffered two delays with the latest date of its launch scheduled for mid July, and NASA is still not satisfied with the security measures taken to prevent Columbia type mishaps. The latest plans also go by the US President’s long-term vision for space exploration. President Bush aims to return human astronauts to moon by 2020 and later to the Mars.

However, a lot of it depends upon the development of their next generation spaceship currently scheduled to be ready by 2014. NASA has further problems in their hand with their agreement with Russia to allow usage of their spacecrafts ending next year.