Shuttle Extension?

Source: NASA

Once the shuttle are in the museums – NASA’s only ticket to ride to the space station will be on Russian built Soyuz rockets. NASA has already bought six seats at about 50 million a pop – no frequent flier discounts – But now it appears the head of the Russian Space Agency – Roskosmos – is spoiling to drive a hard bargain for any tickets beyond those flights. Anatoly Perminov told Interfax “Excuse me but the prices should be absolutely different then!”

Seems like they are better at turning space into a business than the U-S. Oh the irony there… All of this is more fodder for a persistent group of people who say it is not too late to save the shuttle – or at least fly it a lot longer than four more missions. One of them is one of the top people at the prime shuttle contractor the United Space Alliance. Howard DeCastro spoke with me at the Cape before he watched Endeavour take flight for her 24th voyage.

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Wanna Buy a Shuttle?

The shuttle Endeavour in the Vehicle Assembly Building. Source: NASA

NASA is taking a cue from Wal Mart offering  the low price – always…the agency slashed the price to acquire an orbiter for public display.

They were asking 42 million bucks but just lowered the price to just south of 29 million – not including taxes title and dealer prep. Actually you can’t buy the orbiters when they are done flying – you are just paying for the shipping – piggyback on a custom 747. The higher price included the cost of safeing the vehicles – meaning cleaning out all those nasty, volatile and cancer causing chemcials. But now NASA says it will pay for that. The buyers still have to figure out how to get the orbiters from the nearest airport big enough for that 747 – to the museum – no dismantling allowed.

The Smithsonian has already claimed Discovery.   A decision on where the others end up will come this summer – what does an orbiter do to keep busy in retirement?  - play “shuttle-board” of course…

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