What Shuttle Means to Space Program

ByABC News
July 3, 2006, 5:54 PM

HOUSTON, July 3, 2006 — -- As NASA debates a Fourth of July space shuttle launch, there is more at stake than this single expedition.

The space shuttle is also a lifeline to the International Space Station. NASA is committed to 19 more critical missions, 16 of which are necessary to complete the construction of the International Space Station.

The shuttle is the only space craft big enough to carry some of the parts scheduled for delivery over the next four years. Without them, the station will not fulfill its scientific promise, and NASA will not fulfill its promises to international partners.

"That will permanently alienate their international partners many of whom made enormous investments in building components for the space station," said Alex Roland, a professor and former NASA historian.

Without the shuttle, the famed Hubble Space Telescope, which has provided so many beautiful pictures from space, is also in jeopardy. If the shuttle does not deliver a new battery to the apparatus within two years the landmark telescope could shut down.

And if the shuttle doesn't fulfill its mission, dozens of astronauts in training at Houston's Johnson Space Center may never get to space, and thousands of NASA employees could find their jobs jeopardized.

But with a price tag of nearly $5 billion a year, many critics consider the shuttle NASA's white elephant.

"What a white elephant is -- it's a gift you give to someone that is so magnificent that person can't refuse it, but it is so expensive to maintain it will ruin them," Roland said.

If it can't fly soon, critics say, it might not be worth flying at all.