'Capsule' Re-Entry Vehicles Will Push Space Technology 'Back' Ten Years

The next generation of re-entry vehicles NASA uses may look and act a lot like previous iterations. NASA is seriously considering returning to "capsule" technology, leapfrogging backwards over the 1970s-era Shuttle design.

A Reuters report says that, since Columbia's loss February 1, more and more in, and close to the space program, as well as a growing group in congress, are thinking out loud that capsules may be the way to come home, for a decade or more. Winged transport is losing favor.

Add to that, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) report that urged NASA to get on with whatever they're going to use, to replace the generation-old Shuttles.

NASA has developed procedures for an inflight patch kit, so that repairs to damage similar to Columbia's could be made during a mission; the agency admits, though, that it might not be copmprehensive-enough to have repaired the extensive damage the last shuttle suffered, as a piece of foam breached the wing's protective outer zone on takeoff.

No shuttle launches are scheduled until next Summer.

Could the current shuttle fleet continue to do the job? Not if NASA is to go much beyond the roughly 250-mile high orbit of the International Space Station. A current-technology shuttle would never survive a re-entry from a great distance -- like another moon shot.

So... does the next 'shuttle' have to have wings? NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said this week, "We haven’t spelled out that it has to glide back to Earth and land like a plane. That’s not a requirement."

FMI: www.nasa.gov