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July 14, 2005
NASA Administrator: Safe flight 'crucial'
Among the issues raised during Dr. Griffin's pre-flight - and delay - press conference:
1) In the frank press conference, he said that spaceflight was a dangerous business and always would be.
2) Dr. Griffin told reporters: "Is there anything we don't know about that can bite us? Yeah. This is a very tough business - a very tough business."
3) By its retirement in 2010, the shuttle will have been in use for three decades. Dr. Griffin said this was "enough". "It's time to take what we have learned and move on," he added. He has speeded up development of a replacement for the shuttle, to be known as the Crew Exploration Vehicle.
4) "Even with 113 launches under its belt, [the shuttle] is still an experimental test-flight programme," he explained.
5) He said he wanted the US to be the major space-faring nation of the 21st Century and beyond.
For the entire BBC News website article which is the source for this entry go to:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4680183.stm
Posted by starbase202 at July 14, 2005 07:56 AM
