Space Shuttle Program Research Paper

Edwin Torres
Professor Gill
English 101
10/20/11

End of The Space Shuttle Program; Beginning of The Future

We have made much progress on our knowledge about what is beyond our atmosphere. We have put a man on the moon and have educated our society about our universe. We have built an international space station that allows human beings to live outside our atmosphere for years, researching and studying so that we may understand Earth in a much better way. We have learned so much about our world, and a lot of it is thanks to the Space Shuttle Program. It has been very efficient to us for a long time, but times have changed. NASA’s Space Shuttle Program has gone over budget and fallen behind its schedule. It is affecting our economy
It has had many great accomplishments, for example, repairing the Hubble Space Telescope, but it is time for it to come to an end. It has become very inefficient to our country. The shuttle program has run a decade over schedule and tens of billions of dollars over budget while only reaching low Earth orbit. This has had a substantial negative impact on an economy, which already is in trouble. Not only is it behind schedule and over budget, but we are also getting little educational and technological advancements because of it. Man is only going to where he has already been. We are not progressing at the pace we should be. Look at it this way; Apollo put man on the moon in 1969, the space shuttle was made in 1981, in 2011, we still have not gotten passed the moon. This timeline would look like a great success if it were backwards. We are not moving ahead. We need to re-plan and start over. We are wasting large amounts of money putting man in space with no goal. It is time for something new. It is time to move forward into the future with a goal and destination in
They begin to question whether America will remain the leader of space exploration. The answer is, yes. With the new space exploration plan set in place we will move forward and have many technological and educational advancements in our country. The new plan was not just to shut down the shuttle program, but also to challenge NASA to move forward. For years NASA has always been the best at making unmanned spacecraft. They have succeeded and accomplished many missions that have expanded our knowledge of our solar system. The space shuttle on the other hand, was not NASA’s strong point. With the new plan, NASA’s budget to create unmanned spacecraft has been increased 6 billion dollars. This will ramp up robotic space exploration including a probe of the Sun’s atmosphere, scouting missions to mars and other destinations, and more advanced telescopes allowing us to look into our universe even deeper. It will increase Earth observation allowing us to improve our understanding of our climate and our world, which will help us save our planet for future generations. It will allow NASA to go back to the drawing boards and make technological advancements that will help us make more efficient life support to reduce the cost of future missions. NASA will not have to waste time on the shuttle; instead it will spend its time doing what it does best, advancing our