SEATTLE — The United States desperately needs a way to get its astronauts to space and back and one solution could be taking NASA's space shuttle fleet out of retirement, Apollo moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan told Congress Sept. 22.
Without an independent way to launch astronauts into low Earth orbit, the United States risks ceding its global leadership in space to Russia and China and others, the retired astronauts said. Developing that access should be a top priority for NASA and the country.
The recently retired shuttles provide one ready-made answer, according to Cernan. "Get the shuttle out of the garage," Cernan told members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. "It's in its prime of its life. How could we just put it away?" The shuttle program ended this past July after 30 years of operation. The three remaining space-flown orbiters are being readied for museum display.
But it might not be too late to press the shuttles back into action, said Armstrong. "Proposals exist for continuing to fly the space shuttle under commercial contract," Armstrong testified . "Such proposals should be carefully evaluated prior to allowing them to be rendered 'not flightworthy' and their associated ground facilities to be destroyed."
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