MSNBC is carrying reports about the US military’s new spy satellites and about the $1.5 billion science instrument Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) that is likely to be left on the laboratory floor and not taken to the International Space Station because NASA has no plans to schedule a Shuttle mission for it. The AMS was designed to be launched by Shuttle
The US Senate’s science and technology committee’s space subcommittee gave NASA administrator Michael Griffin a talking to about this last month
Talking of NASA, NASASpaceflight.com apparently has the latest on retirement plans for the Space Shuttle’s Main Engine
According to the schedules I have the final build of an SSME was supposed to have taken place already. What isn’t said by anyone is the fact that NASA knows how much it would cost to restart its suppliers many Shuttle production lines and of course Constellation is keeping many more running because it will use Shuttle systems or something very similar from the same companies – 2010 is not necessarily the end
Meanwhile Russia’s Federal Space Agency website has links to detail about the Sirius Four satellite and a profile of Khrunichev Space Center
