Shuttle Retirement will have serious impact to National Security

Shuttle loss will have serious impact to nation
This article written by a very knowledgeable  engineer and three papers, On the early retirement of the shuttle, The Case to save the shuttle, The nonsensical retirement of the shuttle, all on site illustrate the total insanity of shuttle retirement.  Congress, NASA, and the American taxpayer obviously don't  care to follow the recommendations of the various space experts composed of astronauts, former NASA engineers and managers, leaders in major corporations.
This decision to retire shuttle will cost the USA large amounts of funds, loss of space leadership, loss of large numbers of employees.    
The shuttle program has not been treated fairly by Congress, accident boards, NASA , and various media.  More former NASA employees, former contractor employees should organize and get the story out regarding the shuttle, and the Nation's need for its capabilities   Failure to do so and to succeed in returning the shuttle to flight will have tragic consequences for the nation.  The one key factor that many overlook,  the shuttle  "is pushing the envelope" and has truly amazing capabilities.  Someone, I believe one of the former directors of ksc stated the shuttle is the most magnificent flying machine ever built by man. 

Not discussed much, is the potential impact on national security if we loose the shuttle capability.  The could have disastrous consequences to future generations.  Many will dismiss as BS, however I believe this a very serious situation.


NASA knew right answer-- operate shuttle commercially--wanted to spend more
Posted by keeptheshuttleflying.com at 8:52 PM 0 comments  There was a solution and NASA knew it. That solution was to commercialize the STS Space Shuttles and use them in conjunction with a new Shuttle Derived Heavy Lift Launch vehicle, such a Shuttle-C. Shuttle-C could have been built for about $10 billion or about the same money wasted on Constellation before it got cancelled. A Shuttle-C could have lifted some 70,000kg into space. Sharing resources, facilities, and even missions would have reduced the cost for both the Commercial Shuttles and the Shuttle-C. NASA demonstrated the ability to operate the Shuttles at reduced cost when it started shifting people from the bloated Shuttle program to Constellation because this reduce Shutle flight costs from about $1.3 billion to only $750 million. Something NASA kept sayind couldn't be done. The simple fact is the Shuttles died because NASA and the Aerospace Industry didn't want a couple of billion dollars a year flying the Shuttles, they wanted the $200 Billion + building Constellation. At the price you could have flown the Shuttles on over 200 missions. So the Shuttles died and our manned space program was slaughterd for pork. Now they are promoting SLS, which is a vehicle with no mission other than pork.