Russia to charge $51 million for U.S. astronauts on Soyuz flights.

The Russian Space Agency announced last week that it would charge NASA $51 millon for every seat occupied by an American astronaut in future space flights to the International Space Station. This will take place when the Shuttle fleet is retired in 2010 and the new Constellation Orion project begins in 2015.

This announcement proves that all the Space Agencies are in it for the money and nothing else. Why are the Russians charging NASA $16 million more for an astronaut's seat than they charge for a tourist's seat? GREED! NASA should back charge the Russian Space Agency for all those cosmonauts that rode free on past Shuttle missions.

Shuttle's mission littered with danger.

ABC News stated; In repairing the Hubble Telescope, astronauts will face more space debris than they have ever encountered, leading to "very real danger" for the week-long mission. "Something the size of of a pea could put a hole in the spacecraft," a former astronaut told ABC's "Good Morning America," noting that NASA usually tracks debris measuring two inches or more. "What you really worry about are the pieces too small to track, but big enough to do damage."

In knowing all of the information stated above, why did NASA proceed with this repair to the Hubble Telescope? Are the lives and safety of the seven astronauts worth taking a gamble with? What about the possibility of a piece of small debri hitting the Shuttle once it completes the repair and not any of the astronauts are aware of the damage. What do we have to look forward to then? Another Columbia like disaster? Is the repair worth all this? The Hubble has served its purpose and then some. Do not risk the lives of astronauts or destruction of the last three space shuttles to obatin additional information about the Universe. We can not live on any other planet in this Universe except Earth.

How Space Junk Threatens Us

The above article was in the "SAFETY" report in Sunday's May 10, 2009 St. Petersburg Times Newspaper Parade section. A spate of recent extraterrestrial incidents is giving new urgency to international efforts to decrease the danger posed by space junk, the remains of rockets and derelict satellites that have been accumulating in Earth's orbit for 50 years. NASA space shuttles and the International Space Station recently survived close encounters, and a U.S. communications satellite was destroyed in February when it hit an obsolete Russian satellite. "Unfortunately, we will see more collisions," says William Ailor, director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at The Aerospace Corporation. "There's an awful lot of debris up there." NASA currently follows 17,000 orbiting objects and has set rules to limit the litter its missions produce. Cleaning up the exsisting waste, however, remains a "a technical and economic challenge." NASA says space junk remains a threat to "the safety of persons and property in space and on Earth." Traveling at more than 20,000 mph, even a tiny piece of debris could cause catastrophic damage to spacecraft, including satellites that relay cellular phone calls and other critical voice and data communications around the globe.

Even if NASA would set rules to limit the litter its missions produce, who will set the same rules for the other 45 Space Agencies? I believe the solution is to stop launching useless satellites into orbit. How many more weather satellites do we need in orbit? Meteorologist can't seem to predict weather conditions any better now than before all those thousands of Weather satellites were launched. How many GPS's (Global Positioning Satellites) do we need to find a location? Why not depend on our minds, thats what we used prior to GPS's. How many Spy satellites do we or other nation's need to spy on each other? Isn't that an invasion of privacy that generally leads to problems that end up as countries breaking off relations with one another and eventually leading to War? STOP these useless launchings and save this planet.

Conflicting Stories, what can you believe?

The Wall Street Journal printed a story on April 29, 2009 that read; Shuttle program could receive $2.5 Billion to keep flying through 2011. Authorization by the House and Senate will allow the shuttle fleet to continue to operate through 2011, if necessary. The shuttle is scheduled to retire in2010. However, the $2.5 billion in funding will allow it to continue to complete missions to the International Space Station if its replacement is not ready.

Reuters News Service on April 30, 2009 stated; Shuttle retirement prompts NASA to start layoffs. The upcoming retirement of the space shuttle will prompt NASA to cut 900 jobs over the next five months. NASA will send the first notices of job cuts out today to contractors Lockheed Martin and ATK Thiokal, which build te shuttle's fuel tanks. NASA plans to retire the shuttle fleet after eight more missions.

As usual, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. I can almost guarantee that NASA will push flying the shuttle until the Constellation Orion is ready. The loss of revenue for NASA would be astronomical as well as job losses. What are the consequences for safety to the three shuttle's that remain in the fleet and the twenty one astronauts that fly in them?