The Antares rocket explosion shouldn't deter America's space mission: opinion

The timing was terrible.

In Huntsville, hundreds of space industry and NASA executives and scientists gathered for the annual Von Braun Symposium, and NASA was using the forum to tout the great work being done on the Space Launch System, the rocket America will use to get to its next destination, Mars.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and other NASA executives stood strongly behind the decision to scrap the space shuttle program and leave low-earth orbit launches to private industry, which had been building a good track record launching resupply missions to the International Space Station and satellites.

Then, almost on cue, an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket heading to resupply the space station explodes on launch at NASA's Wallops launch facility in Virginia.

The second guessing began almost before the first shrapnel from the unmanned rocket hit the ground in Virginia.

Here's the reality though. While we have astronauts on the International Space Station, and touchy political relations with Russia, America cannot afford a protracted re-debate over the direction of the space program and commercial companies' role in it.

Yes, we must study what went wrong with the Antares rocket and correct it, and it does put more pressure on SpaceX, the only other commercial company able to resupply the space station right now. But the idea of having multiple space launch contractors instead of one, or a government only program, has proven prescient.

Looking at the big picture, this accident shouldn't stop the momentum of the Space Launch System development in Huntsville, and especially the planned test flight of the Orion crew capsule on Dec. 4.

That launch will happen aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket built in Decatur. Its track record is excellent and it shouldn't be judged by what happened to the Orbital Sciences rocket.

William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said it well in a statement after the explosion:

"Launching rockets is an incredibly difficult undertaking, and we learn from each success and each setback. (Tuesday's) launch attempt will not deter us from our work to expand our already successful capability to launch cargo from American shores to the International Space Station."

Let us hope not. Because America's space program, and NASA's workforce, can't afford another total rethinking of its mission, as happened when the Constellation program was scrapped, leading to much uncertainty and job loss before a new direction was finally found with SLS.

That would only put us further behind in our efforts to explore the universe and maintain the International Space Station, and leave us more at the mercy of our international partners, when we should be leading them.

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