Posted: Mon, May 12, 2003, 8:44 AM ET (1244 GMT)
Members of a House subcommittee questioned NASA last week on the agency's plans for the shuttle and the Orbital Space Plane, with one member calling for a manned spaceflight moratorium until a safer successor to the shuttle can be developed. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), a member of the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee, said during a hearing last Thursday that he believed the shuttle was unsafe to fly and could not be made sufficiently safe to permit manned flights to be carried out. Barton said that the shuttle should be scrapped and replaced with a new, safer vehicle, even if "we have to stop manned spaceflight for five or ten years." Other members of the subcommittee questioned NASA deputy administrator Fred Gregory about the agency's plans for the Orbital Space Plane. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), the ranking minority member of the subcommittee, questioned Gregory repeatedly on cost estimates for the development and operation of the OSP, but Gregory was unable to provide detailed estimates on the cost of operating the OSP or even the shuttle.
