Why is the STS space shuttle program ending in 2010?
As with anything where billions of public dollars are involved, its a political decision. In this case, a result of the loss of the Shuttle Columbia and the investigations that came as a result. There is no good reason that the Shuttle could not fly for a few years after 2010, but there are issues that resulted from earlier decisions of the 70s and 80s. Such as, not building more than one additional Shuttle to replace the 1986 lost Challenger. That meant that the Shuttle fleet would never be more than four, and losing one means that you have only three, and that makes it harder to fly a regular program. Plus, from three, lose one more, meaning you have two, and flying safely then becomes almost impossible. The two cited books can give you both the background, and the more recent decision making process. So, without the Shuttle, getting big payloads up to the ISS gets harder. That will leave the Russian Soyuz & Progress spacecraft, and the new ESA supply craft Jules Verne, as the only w
