Ok, I’m finally convinced. It’s time for NASA’s Shuttle program to submit its resignation. Go fix Hubble. Gracefully and heroically bow. And leave on a high note.

We made Shuttle an American Icon. We all believed in it. It was appropriate at the time (although wrong). But now its time is past.

Here’s the crux: if we fly with caution, the timeline gets stretched and the price per flight rises way too high. If we fly with wild abandon, good people may die and we’ll abandon space flight to other nations. [Until they start military ops there, and we have to play catch-up.]

Shuttle has never been the Space Transportation System it was sold to us as. Depending on how you do the numbers, the Shuttle has never flown for less than about $750 million per mission. Now, with a severely handicapped flight rate, that cost is closer to $10 billion per flight. So let’s finally think clearly about this:

Myth #1: Shuttle is vital for Science.
No. In fact, it’s now the other way ‘round. Shuttle’s enormous cost has nearly killed NASA’s ability to do science.

Myth #2: Flying Shuttle to build the International Space Station keeps Russian nuclear scientists off the streets.
Huh? Only the inexperienced Clinton-Gore White House circa 1993 could have believed this one. If we’re truly afraid that idle minds turn to selling weapons of mass destruction, hire those folks to help restart Prometheus or better nuclear propulsion & power systems. These are vital for deep Solar System science. They’re essential for living in cold places like Mars, the Moon’s poles, Main Belt asteroids… And, no, they won’t kill all life in Central Florida – or anywhere else - if their launches fail.

Myth #3: We can repair Hubble with robots.
Nope. The best we can do with “teleoperations” is close it up, park it up in high orbit, wait for our children to grow up, go back, wake it up, point it up and hope it can still track. Hubble was designed to be retrofit and serviced by Shuttle. It’s the right and proper final mission for the vehicle. I know astronauts who are eager, able and appropriately trained to fly this one right now. Immediately would not be too soon.

Myth #4: The Space Station is vital for Science.
What science? If we were spinning rats, monkeys or people in artificial gravity to work countermeasures for cardiovascular de-conditioning and loss of bone mass… If we were baking large scale, rad-hard, high-switch rate chips made by compositing elements way up the periodic table beyond even gallium-arsenide… If, if if… But all we seem to be doing is asking PhD astronauts to ride a bicycle and pee in a tube. ISS does have practical engineering roles to play in the development of long-term crew support systems for Mars missions and asteroid trips. And Station does give us a platform to choreograph EVAs for construction in space. But science? When??

Myth #5: Shuttle is essential to finish building Station.
Whatever follows Shuttle, be it CEV + heavy lifter or smarter concepts, it will need payload bay capacity and EVA facility. Finish Station with that. Soyuz can re-supply it in the meantime. Re-boost can be done cheaper than Shuttle. And why is this President continuing the failed policy of his predecessors, anyway? Sell the Space Station to Space Adventures…or Virgin…or Hilton…or Disney…

I don’t hate Shuttle; I love it. Or at least I love the people who fly it and run it. I don’t bash NASA; I support it. Administrator Griffin and his new team are sharp, compassionate, innovative thinkers. But they need your citizen’s voice and mine to get the white elephant (and the White House) off their backs. So together we can go explore and settle the Solar System.

All things must pass. Even American Idol will eventually get cancelled.