NASA's new administrator has made it clear that he wants to terminate the Shuttles ASAP. The only role left for the Shuttles is to complete the ISS. The United States is obligated by treaty to complete the ISS. Once the ISS is finished (core complete) then we're done with that white elephant and the surviving Shuttle orbit vehicles can be hauled off to the Smithsonian and Air Force Museum. This raises the question: Why don't we renegotiate the treaties involving the ISS and decommission it now? Then in principle, the Shuttle orbit vehicles could immediately be hauled off to museums. My guess is this tactic is dangerous politically for multiple reasons. There would be a 5 year hiatus while NASA got the CEV up and running. The astronaut corp would be twiddling its thumbs for 5 years while the manned space exploration program was a sitting duck for political termination. I suspect MIke Griffin wants to guard against that scenario by having the CEV up-and-running before he pulls the plug on the ISS and Shuttle orbit vehicle.

The Space Program is in a serious mess. All our chickens are coming home to roost. Even if Griffin does everything right in terms of the ISS, Shuttle, CEV, etc. , there is a high probability that the next US President (Hillary?) could terminate Bush's Vision for Space Exploration. With the Shuttle and ISS already terminated, NASA might be left with no alternative options. By 2010, the U.S. Space Program might be reduced to nothing more than a bunch of empty buildings where the NASA centers used to be and assorted relics in the Smithsonian and Air Force Museum (not a pleasant thought).

Gary