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Griffin's Plan/Hutchison Bill Conflict - another take

This item was reported several weeks back by NASAwatch as being a conflict between Sen. Hutchinson's desire to finish ISS construction, and NASA's projected capability to finish Shuttle usage & the gap of getting on with CEV capability.

The last parts of ISS assembly (depending on what stays within Shuttle launch capability)focus on getting the International Partners (mainly Europe and Japan, which have been part of the Program longer than Russia) installed on the vehicle, while completing the very-tricky buildout of the truss sections of ISS.

My real fear is that the 2010 ISS assembly complete fixation will cause us to emphasize schedule over everything else. ISS assembly, and the Shuttle flights it is dependent on, have been continually redesigned/resequenced over two decades. There is a fragile interdependence of one flight on the next. I fear that that interdependency, and the looming 2010 deadline, will be difficult. The 2010 fixation also reminds me of the critique that the Columbia Accident Investigation Board had of the Node 2 launch date fixation, and makes me worry that NASA's falling into the same trap. I'll be happy to be proven wrong.

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