14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the American space agency say that, if the Obama Administration's 2012 budget proposal passes through Congress in its current form, then NASA would receive sufficient money to afford to launch the space shuttle Atlantis later this year.
Originally, Discovery and Endeavor were supposed to fly the last two sorties to the International Space Station (ISS), but NASA decided to fly Atlantis one more time as well. However, until now, it has been uncertain as to whether the funds required for this operation would be made available.
The uncertainty looms even now, as the budget proposal has yet to be adopted. In its current form, it states that the space agency should receive the same amount of money in 2012 as it did back in 2010.
Last year, NASA got around $18.7 billion dollars. At this time, the agency is operating under a continuing resolution, which awards it $19 billion for all its activities. Even if it reverts to 2010 levels, it would have sufficient money to afford to launch Atlantis.
In the current flight manifest the agency set up, Discovery is next in line to launch. Take-off is scheduled for February 24, from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida.
The mission will deliver the Multipurpose Logistics Module (MPLM) to the station. It will also carry up the Robonaut 2 robotic assistant, developed by NASA in collaboration with General Motors.
After it returns home, the oldest shuttle in the fleet will be retired, and then most likely delivered to the Smithsonian museum in Washington. Next in line is Endeavor, which will launch on its final flight to low-Earth orbit (LEO) this April.
This mission will carry the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) particle detector to space. This is the most expensive piece of equipment ever delivered to the ISS. It is valued at about $2 billion.
Beyond that, NASA had nothing planned until late last year, when the prospect of launching Atlantis became appealing. With 2010 funding levels, the agency could support ground operations and orbiter preparations necessary for a shuttle launch.
Atlantis' final flight, called STS-135, was planned for a June 28 launch, also from the KSC. “The '135' question will get addressed through the continuing-resolution process for fiscal year 2011,” explains Bill Gerstenmaier.
“We're pressing on, assuming we're going to go get the flight, and we'll see what happens,” adds the NASA official, who is the chief of Space Operations at the agency.
“Only if we get some severe cuts would we not be able to go fly the flight,” he concludes, quoted by Space.