CaRRibeaN, >Родина может спать спокойно - в ближайшие 10 (а то и больше) лет, нас ничего кроме МКС в пилотируемом космосе не ожидает.
Ekiy vy, baten'ka, optimist..
Chitaem:
NASA scraps its hope for replacing the ageing space shuttles, while cuts hit the International Space Station
"Five years and $1.3 billion had been invested in the X-33 program, which was developing a reusable spacecraft that could reach space at far less cost per kilogram than the existing space shuttles.
Aerospace experts said the X-33 had been too technologically ambitious. Art Stephenson, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, said: "This has been a very tough decision... but our technology has not yet developed to the point that we can successfully develop a new reusable vehicle that substantially improves safety, reliability and affordability."
[...total station spending well above the $25 billion ceiling imposed by Congress last year.]
"That will stop work on the four-person US Habitation Module, the Crew Return Vehicle - the ISS's "lifeboat" - and the Propulsion Module, leaving a shrunken version of the originally planned station. Space shuttle operations will also be reduced to six launches a year from a planned eight."
"The cancellation of the X-33 and a smaller test craft, the X-34, comes despite a 64% increase in the Bush plan for the Space Launch Initiative."
NASA's $14.5bn budget request leaves key Space Station questions unanswered
"[NASA] recently told Congress that the ISS is running $4 billion over budget."
"NASA has to find a way to pay for key ISS modules including the Crew Return Vehicle, the "life boat" that would ferry up to seven astronauts back to earth in case of an emergency.
Without the CRV, the ISS must rely on a three-seater Russian Soyuz capsule for an escape pod, limiting the crew to three. A trio of astronauts are needed to run the ISS, so no one could conduct scientific research."
"NASA administrator Dan Goldin told a Congressional committee that the agency would put off development of the CRV in order to finish the "core" of the station for less than $25 billion"
"NASA will cut other ISS costs and may turn to its international partners for help with the CRV."
A vot tut mojno bylo by i podzarabotat'!!
A voobshe kartina vyrisovyvaetsya daleko ne romanticheskaya. A vy govorite Mars... rano, zelo slaby esm'.