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Nasa Details Shuttle's Retirement

schliz writes "Nasa has announced that it intends to officially retire the aging space shuttle fleet by 2010, four years before it has a replacement craft ready. The space shuttle fleet will make ten more flights, mainly to add modules to the International Space Station and carry out repairs and upgrades to the Hubble orbital telescope. The retirement will leave the US without orbital capacity for at least four years, until the Ares booster programme is complete. European and Russian launchers will service the space station in the meantime."

2 of 400 comments (clear)

  1. It's not a dog's name, it's an acronym! by ScentCone · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    "Nasa"?

    It's NASA, for cryin' out loud. That's almost as bad as the people who pronounce it "Nassau."

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  2. Re:Ares ready by 2014? by khallow · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Two things. First, the boomers aren't "selfish" for wanting money out of a program that they explicitly put money into and for which they have been promised some sort of retirement payout since the begining of the program. Second, Social Security benefits will be cut for the boomers (at least the later ones). Either it'll be done in a straightforward manner or by underhanded tricks like monkeying around with the consumer price index (CPI). But it will happen.