Says 28 Flights Before 2010 Is Unrealistic

No way. That's the answer you'll get from NASA's new chief when asked whether the space shuttles really can fly 28 missions in five years. Nope. Can't do it.

Administrator Michael Griffin says the shuttles' schedule will simply have to be curtailed and that will greatly impact completion of the International Space Station.

In any case, Griffin said the shuttles may fly as few as 15 missions between now and their scheduled retirement in 2010. That number could go as high as 23, but that would be the upper limit, given the amount of time it takes to turn the space planes around from one mission to the next.

"I'll be very strong on this," he said in an interview quoted by the New York Times. "No decision will be made until we've had a chance to discuss options with [our partners in the ISS]," he said. However, "I can't discuss options with them before those options have been aired with my boss. And they understand that. They have the same constraints as me."

Griffin also reiterated his strong position that the US can't afford to wait four or five years after the current fleet of shuttles is retired before launching a replacement. And that replacement, he said, will be wholly red-white-and-blue -- a US-only creation. That way, he said, the US will continue to enjoy "unfettered, independent access to space."

FMI: www.nasa.gov