Next Saturday will mark the end of an era in the field of space exploration. Atlantis will take off and you will never again fly a shuttle to their characteristics. The XXI century will be to MPCV, it plans to ship to Mars.
Beyond the sky, visible from the ground there is another world. A world of ships, objects floating in the air without gravity, engineering and high-end people who literally spend their day flying in space.
People who for 30 years have crossed the sky in the so-called space shuttles. First reusable spacecraft and the first capable of putting satellites in orbit, the STS (Space Transport System) were created by NASA in the 70 to make the dream of building and maintaining a space station. The first flight was made by Columbia in 1981.
With the ongoing International Space Station, in orbit 360 kilometers high, and a fleet of four ferries which traveled more than 355 astronauts, NASA gets ready to experience a turning point for manned exploration.
The turning point has a date marked on the calendar: July 8, 2011. Within six days the shuttle Atlantis made the trip No. 33. And since then, the only ferry in operation after the removal of Discovery and Endeavour will leave the space.
STS-135 mission will last 12 days and will be responsible for four crew members. At the helm will be the commander Chris Ferguson, who will be accompanied by Doug Hurley as pilot and astronaut Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim and mission specialists. The ship on which travel is credited with turning the planet Earth 4648.
The winery will be a module filled with supplies and spare parts for the ISS (abbreviation for the International Space Station), which was planned in detail because from now on all charges must be shipped in automatic warehouses Russian, European and Japanese.
In return, the Atlantis will bring surplus equipment as an ammonia pump broke and needs a thorough overhaul on the ground.
What's next. The end of an era does not mean the end of exploring the world beyond the blue sky. Neither the United States to abandon the race. Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator, worked on leave it clear in a press conference yesterday. "As exastronauta I am, I am here to say that American leadership in the space race will continue at least for the next half century. We laid the foundations for success, so failure is not an option."
The new commitment of the NASA spacecraft is MPCV (acronym in English that means multi-manned vehicle), a spacecraft designed to travel to get to Mars and asteroids, in addition to carrying astronauts to the international station. In fact you can travel 300 to 400 kilometers beyond the ISS.
The MPCV, which will soon be in 2016, can carry four astronauts on missions of up to 21 days and will feature two new systems: the abortion, it will be ten times safer, and the service module.
System abortion allowed to take control and divert the ship in case an emergency on the launch, still in the memory of the seven deaths engineers after the Challenger shuttle explosion in 1986. The service module will contain water, oxygen and nutrients.
Some experts say the new ship looks like Orion, which initially was to replace the space shuttle to carry astronauts to the moon around 2020, within the Constellation Program.
To achieve orbit, the Orion spacecraft would use the Ares I rocket, but in January 2010 the U.S. President, Barack Obama decided to cancel the program. Some believe that was the biggest debacle of the U.S. space program crew. The Constellation project was created by George W. Bush.
EXPECTATIONS. The shuttle fleet will be withdrawn due to safety concerns and the high operating cost for the U.S. government. Each flight will cost U.S. $ 1,450 million.
The new era will also give private companies to build rockets that are directed to the ISS. Thus, the space agency can focus on design and far more complex missions, such as those planned with MPCV. In addition, NASA is designing a rocket that will require heavy to launch the new ship.
The year 2025 appears as the first goal. By then, the United States hopes that a team of astronauts prop your feet on an asteroid. And the most ambitious plan is scheduled for 2030: to Mars.
Meanwhile, residents of the Kennedy Space Center launch complex of the ferries, are torn between sadness and anxiety. The purpose of this program is a blow to the local economy and will disappear some 27,000 direct and indirect jobs. The five or six releases a year attracted thousands of visitors.
"It's like losing a family member," said Marcia Gaedcke, president of the Titusville Chamber of Commerce. Maybe in five years to receive MPCV, the newest member of the family.
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