But Holds Out Hope For Funding One More Mission

It's time to start shutting down NASA's historic space shuttle program. The idea that the US will spend five years dependent on Russia for service missions to the International Space Station has brought furrowed brows and blustery rhetoric from Washington politicians... but so far, no additional money to extend the shuttle program.

The Bush administration previously called for an end to the program by the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30, 2010. The Obama administration has extended that deadline to the end of the calendar year 2010, and talked about one additional mission to deploy the already-built Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer... but, again, there has been no money appropriated to make either happen.

CNET reports NASA managers are meeting this week to plan the wind-down that must begin in the lack of funding. CBS News reports it obtained a memo, sent from shuttle program manager John Shannon to project engineers and managers, which says NASA must start the shutdown process now in order to assure successful completion of the missions currently on the manifest.

"You have heard me say that 'hope is not an effective management tool' on many occasions," Shannon wrote. "It is my position that we cannot continue to spend money to retain the capability to fly additional space shuttle missions, hoping that someone will recognize the national assets we are giving up.

"We have to take our destiny in our own hands and manage within the limited budget we have been given and ensure that we will fly the full manifest and leave the International Space Station in the best configuration possible."

A program manager who spoke on condition of anonymity added, "If we're going to make this thing work, we've got to focus 100 percent on those nine flights and make sure we get them done... And that's what we're going to go do."

CNET reports the cost of leaving options open for adding more flights could cost NASA $90 million.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/shuttle