Someone mentioned this during the conference yesterday, but now I’ve found a URL. Costs to return the Shuttle to flight have exploded, now estimated at 1.1 billion dollars.

As someone over at sci.space.policy said, “Surprise, surprise, surprise.”

IMO, most of the return to flight activities are a waste of money for bandaids, similar to the foolish “escape pole” that some insisted be added to the Shuttle after the Challenger.

They should either start flying again now, or shut the program down. Wasting all this time and money on an unfixable system that’s going to be retired after twenty-five flights is pointless. We still need to revisit the CAIB recommendations in light of the new policy, something that, AFAIK, has not happened since the January 14th announcement.

Fortunately, there’s at least one lawmaker with his head screwed on straight (not surprising, since Pete Worden has his ear):

This most recent cost increase isn’t going to sit well with some lawmakers, said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., chairman of the Senate Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee.

“We’re pouring a lot of money — $4 billion to $5 billion a year — into the shuttle whether it flies or not,” said Brownback. “There will be some real hard questions such as what are we getting out of putting more money into the shuttle.”

Brownback said he would rather retire the shuttle sooner and divert its budget and accelerate NASA’s plans to follow through on President Bush’s vision to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually to Mars.