NASA Chief warns NASA to get ready for life after Space Shuttle

NASA Chief warns NASA to get ready for life after Space Shuttle

NASA Chief Mike Griffin visited the Kennedy Space Center on Friday and warned NASA workers to be prepared for days without the Space Shuttle in the space agency. He spoke to the media and said: “I report to the president. The president has said we’re retiring the orbiter by 2010, and that’s what we’re doing”.

He also talked about NASA having a plan in place by this summer’s end on how much the ISS (international space station) would be complete when this happens. And in a year or so, NASA would have plans for the transitional period to their next generation space vehicles.

Griffin also warned that as a result of the retiring of the Shuttle, some people in NASA might no longer be required. In his words: “Not everyone will transition. One of the main issues with the orbiter is how much it takes to care and feed the fleet. You enter a period where you need to watch out for yourself, and you need to look out for new opportunities.”

In simple words, NASA has to evolve and move out of Space Shuttle’s shadows. They have to look towards the future and build the next generation vehicles to carry man to moon and beyond. The immediate goal is to lessen the time period between the retirement of the shuttles and the newer vehicles currently planned for launch in around the mid of 2010s.