We've know this was a possibility since long before the shuttle retired in 2011. The failure of the US government to adequately prepare for a gap in human spaceflight, at a time when it had a $100 billion lab in orbit, tells us all we need know about the priority of civil space.
This accident comes at a time when Russian officials are already investigating a defect in the last crewed vehicle launched to the station. It's clear there are very serious problems with the Russian space program. Hard to overstate the significance of this moment for HSF.
Chris Kraft told me in 2014: “The cancellation of the space shuttle may be the biggest blunder ever made by the United States. It’s fairly obvious that no one in the government thought through what they were about to bring about when they made that decision.”
He seems right.
He seems right.
