Hubble and Aries

The law of unintended consequences governs NASA just as it does other areas of human activity.

The biggest goal for NASA's manned space program in the short term is to narrow the gap between the last shuttle flight and the first flight under the new Constellation program. NASA had been pushing for the first launch of an early version of the new Aries launcher to go next April. Because if the delay of the final repair mission to Hubble until next spring, the Aries test will be delayed. It seems the shuttle needs the launchpad NASA plans to modify to accomodate Aries.

There should be no overall delay in the Constellation program, but there is irony. After Columbia, NASA decided another repair mission to Hubble would be too dangerous. Public opinion and the science community got that decision reversed. Now, that mission will delay at least the first test of the flight hardware intended to carry NASA into the future.