Washington - As lawmakers weigh the pros and cons of turning over US manned spaceflight to contractors, one commercial hopeful vowed Thursday that her firm could fly US astronauts to the orbiting space station for less than a trip on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Gwynne Shotwell, president of Space X, said she could guarantee her company would be able to provide at least three flights to the International Space Station (ISS) for less than 50 million dollars a seat. A ride on the Soyuz currently costs the US space agency NASA 51 million dollars per astronaut, and that price is likely to rise when current agreements expire.Shotwell was among members of the aerospace industry who appeared Thursday before a Senate subcommittee to try to allay concerns about Obama administration plans for manned commercial spaceflight. Critics have said that commercial spaceflight may be too risky, will take too long to develop and will gut NASA of needed spaceflight expertise and experience.While other industry executives declined to offer such an exact price for their services, all said they would be ready to fly to orbit within three or four years.The nearly three-decade old space shuttle fleet is to be mothballed in September, and original plans to replace the shuttles with next-generation spacecraft that could make the journey to the moon and beyond were deemed too pricey and behind schedule to continue.President Barack Obama's proposal to cancel the existing post- shuttle programme has drawn ire from members of Congress and some space advocates. Instead, Obama wants to commit 6 billion dollars to developing manned commercial spaceflight.After the remaining four shuttle missions are flown, the US and other space-faring nations will be reliant on Russia's Soyuz craft as the only way to get to the International Space Station.Russian space agency chief Anatoli Perminov has indicated that Moscow plans to jack up the price of its services in 2012 after existing agreements expire. While he did not give exact figures, the US is already paying 306 million dollars to use Russian spacecraft through 2011.Former NASA comptroller Malcom Peterson had earlier told the committee that commercial efforts would likely cost more than Soyuz."We have the equivalent of a commercial crew capability right now, we have had it in the past, it's called the Soyuz," he said.Any commercial vehicle would "be in a competitive environment with the Soyuz. It will pose a great challenge to them. ... I think it will be a price competitive environment."In addressing safety concerns about commercial spaceflight, industry leaders emphasized that they are already involved in launching satellites or in the existing shuttle programme and could easily shift gears to create a safe commercial crew option."I would be happy to volunteer to strap in once again for a mission to the International Space Station," said Frank Culbertson, a former astronaut and Orbital Scinces Corporation vice president. "If I am not willing to join the first mission of an Orbital-developed spacecraft that I share responsibility for, then no one should be on that flight."Aerospace executives stressed that they are already well on the way with existing technology that could be used for commercial crew vehicles. Space X has already developed a rocket to carry cargo to the station, and it was designed to eventually carry crew as well, Shotwell said.Similarly, chief executive Michael Gass of United Launch Alliance, a collaborative effort between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, said only minimal changes would be needed to modify its existing launch vehicles to carry people.
No comments:
Post a Comment