Is the US the only country that sends out space shuttles?

Question

What would happen? Lets say if China sends out a space shuttle out at the same time as the US does?

Answer 1

China doesn’t have a space program anywhere near creating a space shuttle.

Russia has a space shuttle, it was stolen from US plans, but it has never flown because the design is just too primitive. The space shuttle represents some of the most advanced technology this planet has every produced and we are abandoning it.

The space shuttle had one reason for existence; it was a flying truck to build the space station. It has done so much more and a lot of good science has been done on it. Yet NASA is going back to old Apollo technology and the way of doing things. They plan on using old boosters left over from the space shuttle program to send the new Orion spacecraft into space.

The biggest reason for this was the slashing of NASA’s budget. Bush did it right after directing them to plan to return to the moon and to plan a manned Mars mission. If we had kept working after the Apollo program we could have been to Mars 20 years ago. But, we have lost most of that technology and couldn’t build an Apollo space program today.

The future is in space and China knows it. They will probably use an Apollo style space program to go to the moon and I wish them good luck. They may even build their own space station. But, the future of space is not in a Mars mission it is in a near earth asteroid mission. We are running out of raw materials, China is going through them at a huge rate and if they continue their growth they will run out in only a few decades. Since they can’t get more resources out of earth they are going to have to go into space to get it. Asteroids are huge pieces of iron and nickel with rare elements like iridium in them. They are as valuable as diamonds are, if we can get to them. Most of them are beyond the orbit of Mar or beyond the orbit of Uranus; currently out of our reach. Yet in 2029 there is an Asteroid that is coming so close to the earth that it will pass under some of our satellites. Imagine the space base it would make if we could capture it. And we know that it is coming back in 2036 so we have two tries to slow it down and put it into a stable earth orbit. If we did that we would have a huge resource for space manufacturing. There are engineering and medical processes that can only be done under micro-g conditions. Things like nearly perfect ball bearings and new drugs. We need a program to move some of our industry into space to take advantage of the micro-gravity conditions to create things we need on Earth that we can’t make anywhere else.

Luckily Congress just restored some of NASA’s budget. But, we need a lot of that to update the aging satellites. If we lose one of our major KH-11 spy satellites the only way we can replace it is with a space shuttle. Abandoning the space shuttle program is as stupid as trying to land on Jupiter (a gas giant with almost no surface).

NASA plans on paying Russia to keep supplying the space station why they spend the decade they need to re-engineer the Apollo like Orion program. If Russia has another hic-up it could go out of business and leave astronauts stranded on the space station. Even worse all the work we have done in space could go to countries like China because we no longer have the will to keep up the space program or the direction to make reachable goals.

Going to Mars would be a great feat, but it would be a publicity stunt at best. We are doing a lot of science there with unmanned probes and we need to concentrate on space industry. To run a space industry you need a program like the space shuttle. Is it any wonder that the first private ship to fly to the edge of space is based on the space shuttle plan! Maybe private industry has the will and forethought to establish space industry, if not then we might as well give the future to China.

Answer 2

We are the only ones that have a reusable spacecraft. If the Chinese or anyone else decides to buils one that would be great since the shuttle is nearing retirement. If they do send one up at the same time I am sure there would be an effort to make it a joint mission, possibly docking with the space station.

Answer 3

Soviet Union had a program for a space shuttle, very much like the US ones, but they failed and also had their disasters. I believe they are all dismantled now.

Here is a link

Answer 4

I believe the Soviet Union once had a project for a small reusable orbital vehicle that was big enough to carry people but not much cargo. I don't know how much it was used.