NASA puts price tag on extending shuttle's life.

An Associated Press article stated that if the incoming administration wants to keep the shuttle flying beyond 2010, the price tag will be about $3 billion a year, NASA Administator Michael Griffin said Thursday. Scheduling 10 additional missions, as some have suggested, would come with another cost as well: "We would have a one-in-eight chance of losing the crew in one of the 10 flights," Griffin said.
The 5 year total cost would be $15 billion along with the risk of losing another shuttle as well as the 7 astronauts. Michael Griffin is the same NASA Administrator that submitted his resignation that becomes effective next Friday, January 16. How can this individual even contemplate extending the life of the 3 shuttles as well as the safety of the astronauts when he has no clue as to the circumstances that will be involved when he departs? As usual NASA and everyone involved with their future space flights need to be retrained. Hopefully president-elect Barack Obama seems to be leaning toward selecting Charles Kennel as the new NASA chief. Kennel is a distinguished scientest. I believe we also need a distinguished aerospace engineer to work along side Michael Kennel in order to provide safety measures to the crew and its craft.