This is an emergency---BHO puts thousands in danger---loss of control of ISS

Why we must save the space shuttle: If the Int'l Space Station is disabled, we need a rescue fleet
BY CHRISTOPHER KRAFT AND SCOTT SPENCER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, June 12, 2011
For more than 10 years, space crews from the United States, Russia and other countries have successfully lived and worked year round, in six-month shifts, on the International Space Station, where they have conducted scientific research. In the coming years, that work will continue - but with a crucial safeguard missing: the space shuttle fleet that gives human beings a unique capability to fix the space station's guidance system and rocket thrusters in the event of a terrible failure.

The shuttles are now about to retire - all of them, with no true replacements. This is an extremely dangerous development.


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Loss of control of the space station would mean a catastrophic reentry into the Earth's atmosphere of the massive structure - the largest object ever placed in orbit around the Earth, measuring over three football fields long and weighing more than 400 tons.

The tons of falling debris that would survive reentry would pose an unprecedented threat to populated areas around the world.

Such an international catastrophe would have significant ramifications for foreign relations and liability for the United States, Russia and the other countries who participate as partners on the space station.

To be sure, the space station has numerous, triple-redundant life support and control systems that makes such a total technical failure unlikely. However, to say that it is so redundant that it could never happen ignores the tragic lessons learned due to the overconfidence in fail-safe technology in disasters throughout history, from the sinking of the Titanic to the nuclear reactor crisis in Japan.

In fact, the numerous space station backup systems offer little margin of safety in the event of damage from a fire, space junk impact or a potential collision from the more frequent docking of manned and unmanned commercial spacecraft resupply missions.

If the life support, guidance systems or rocket thrusters are damaged, the station could need a rapid rescue mission to stay in orbit. And as repair vehicles, the space shuttles have unique capabilities.

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