Space Shuttles and Rockets Unfortunately, there were many space shuttle problems, some of them were even deadly. There were problems right from the beginning with the shuttle. Originally it had been designed to be much smaller and not need the attached rockets, but the military was desirous of being able to launch very large spy satellites and the original shuttle was too small, so it had to be enlarged and along with making it bigger it became even more unsafe. It also was supposed to reduce the price of putting objects into orbit, but instead was about ten times more expensive than using a rocket. There are those who claim the space shuttle program was a failure and they cite the facts I mentioned above. When it became so expensive for the shuttle to launch objects, the shuttle became noncompetitive for commercial packages. In 1972 it was thought the shuttle could launch objects for only $118 per pound. In 2011 the cost per launch was figured out to be 1.5 billion dollars and the cost per pound to launch something jumped to $8,000 per pound. There seems to be nothing more wasteful than a program run by the government. The shuttle was said to have a one week turn around time when it was designed, that never happened. The irony was expendable launch rockets were much cheaper to use than the reusable shuttle. Many people were upset with NASA and some accused them of ignoring safety recommendations just to get a flight in the air on schedule. The Challenger was on the pad and NASA was waiting to get it into space. The weather was cold and this was an important consideration since there was something called O rings which connected the external rockets and they were subject to failing if the weather was too cold. The external rockets were made by a company named Morton-Thiokol. NASA engineers decided to launch even in the cold temperatures and an engineer from Morton-Thiokol begged NASA not to do it saying it wasn’t safe. He contacted NASA several times saying the O rings were too stiff from the cold preventing a seal. He was ignored. Challenger was destroyed and none of the crew survived. The space shuttle had thermal tiles on it which were used as a heat shield. This was protection from friction during ascent and descent. The shuttle Columbia was destroyed by a piece of foam which broke off from a fuel tank. No one at the time thought a piece of foam could destroy the shuttle. Other shuttles had lost tiles without a problem and returned from orbit safely. The Soviets thought the space shuttle was going to be wonderful and they wanted one for themselves. It just so happened plans were easy to obtain from different sources. The one thing they never counted on was us finding out what they were doing. We did and made changes to the plans without them finding out. They went to work with these altered plans and built their own space shuttle to the original size ours had been designed at. They launched it and it came back completely burned and it is said it could never be launched again. Competition in space was hot and heavy during the cold war. The Soviets were ahead of us with the first satellite and first man into space, but we caught up and got to the moon first. Today we are accepted as the leaders in space, but other countries are on the move and it was easier for them than us because they based what they do on things we have already done. We have been sending rovers out for years, but China just launched their first one to the moon. They are making rapid progress however and if we are not careful, they could overtake us some time in the future. The same is true for India, but they are not moving as fast as China. A solution has been put forth and that is to let some of the space missions be accomplished by commercial companies like SpaceX. They would be a heck of a lot cheaper and if a company, any space company, has the ability to carry out a mission for less money we should let them. While a company like SpaceX could probably carry out a lot of missions, they do not possess a rocket the size of the SLS. When we talk about the SLS we are talking about a rocket which is 321 feet tall, has 8.4 million pounds of thrust, weighs 5.5 million pounds and can carry 154,000 pounds. It is the most powerful rocket ever built, but can not carry as much cargo as the Saturn V. Rockets this size are not needed for most of our missions and rockets like the Falcon would serve us just fine. Another bonus is SpaceX has reusable rockets taking us into the next stage of technology and making launches much cheaper. When one thinks about space, it would make a lot more sense if the countries of the world cooperated with their launches. Instead of one country sending up an experiment on a rocket and another sending a different one on their rocket, the countries could save a lot of money by putting both experiments on the same rocket. We should all be cooperating, not everything needs to be secret. There is no reason why if we go back to the moon it can’t be done internationally.
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