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I would like to say that it was great and exceeded the parameters that it was expected to work in, but unfortunately, it failed in most of these What am I talking about, it is the space shuttle and the reasons it was developed. It looked good on paper or at least that is what we were told. The whole idea of the shuttle was to be able to develop a manned machine that could fly into space, launch payloads cheaper than the rockets of the day and act as a scientific platform for experiments. Unfortunately these machines didn't always make it into space.

As we all know, the shuttles Challenger and Columbia exploded killing all on board. Even when the shuttle was successful, its cost per pound to lift anything into space was far more than a conventional rocket, the object that it was supposed to save money over. Were we led down the garden path with the development of the shuttle, did the powers that be know that it would be more expensive? Was it developed because it could be controlled by a human pilot and be used to carry weapons and maybe knock other satellites out of orbit? Who knows, but someone during it's development must have realized that it would cost more to launch. I mean, just look at those two huge tanks of fuel it had to drag with it on each side and that even bigger tank that the shuttle is strapped to, figuratively speaking. Each one was the size of a rocket itself. It looks to me like each launch was almost the equivalent of launching three rockets with all the associated costs.

Why is the shuttle so dangerous? Each shuttle contains hundreds of thousands of parts. Sometimes a certain part not working correctly can spell disaster. You have to remember that a shuttle launch is like trying to send a huge bomb indo space without it blowing up in your face. Not only is the shuttle subject to parts failure, but launches are effected by the weather. If it is too cold, the rubber 'o' rings that connect boosters to the shuttle can fail causing an explosion. To make matters even worse, there is no way for the astronauts to escape the shuttle. There are no ejection seats for bailing out while still in the atmosphere or any escape capsule. It seems that safety was not well thought out when the shuttle was designed. Pieces seem to fall off on launch lately making matters even worse.

What are we going to do about all this?

There is a new design in the works for a new shuttle. The vehicles is named the Crew Exploration Vehicle. It is the dream child of Northrop Grumman and Boeing Corp. But wait, it looks very familiar, why is that? It is because it looks like the original Apollo spacecraft. A major difference between it and the space shuttle is that it will be able to travel to the moon, as well as to the international space station. The module will fit upon a shuttle derived vehicle, I don't know if this is so good or not, given the history of the shuttle, I can only hope that it has been refined enough to get rid of it's inherent problems. The companies both state that the design parameters for the new vehicle were safety, economy and reliability.

What makes this capsule different than the Apollo that it looks like? First of all, it is completely modern and can hold six astronauts while the Apollo only held three. Even though it is only slightly bigger than the Apollo capsule, it has much more internal room and is only slightly heavier because of advances in materials and technology. Systems in the capsule will use much less power but the vehicle will carry much more fuel making it more independent of the alignment of the Earth and Moon while traveling. It is said that this orbiter will be able to orbit the Moon for six months while a crew of four goes to the surface of the Moon.

Crew Exploration Vehicle Capsule

The companies building it state that it is an evolutionary machine. It is not being constructed using any single break through, thus they feel it will be a lot more reliable. It will have two subsystems to help it recover from subsystem failures. As far as ejection seats and escape capsules, we will have to wait and see.