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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It was hard to escape a sense of history for Friday's launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis, 30 years of Utah playing a central role in the shuttle which is now on its last mission. Many would like to see a new life in the future for the Utah-made booster rockets.
We are now dependent on others to buy rides to our space station that we built with our international partners.
–Horowitz
One person who knows what it's like to be inside when the main engine starts is Park City resident Scott Horowitz, a former astronaut.
"The whole thing starts to shake and shudder," Horowitz explained.
The real juice kicks in when the Utah-made solid rocket boosters ignite, he said. "All this energy has suddenly been released under you, and you're riding like you're in a man-made earthquake and being shot right off the pad."
When still an astronaut, Horowitz worked those boosters into his design for a new rocket: the Ares. But the administration killed it.
Related:
Utahns look on as Atlantis blasts off on final flight
The last space shuttle launch that will ever happen went off nearly on schedule Friday. It provided thrills on takeoff, and left many Utahns wondering what comes next."We are now dependent on others to buy rides to our space station that we built with our international partners. That bothers a lot of people and, to be quite honest, I can't blame them," Horowitz said.
The administration is encouraging a new era of commercial rockets: companies build their own and sell launch services to NASA. ATK has a couple of designs in the works — the Liberty rocket and a heavy-lift rocket for higher orbits, using reconfigured shuttle boosters.
"It is the safest way to launch a rocket on the planet, bar none," Horowitz said.
NASA's plans seem to be in synch, but the timetable and budgets are fuzzy. Many critics say the missions and the vision remain undefined.
"It's a tremendous time of uncertainty. This is a very difficult transition time, especially for the manned space flight, because America right now does not own a manned spaceflight capability," Horowitz said.
That means when NASA wants to put the next astronaut in orbit, they'll have to pay the Russians $50 million-plus to get him there.
Email: hollenhorst@ksl.com
