Intersection Segment | Shuttle launch director: Shuttle program's end is premature
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
By: Amy Green

July 6, 2011| Thirty years after the first shuttle launch, the icon of American space exploration remains an "engineering marvel," one that won't be replicated during our lifetime, says Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. Leinbach, who gives the final "go" for launch before all shuttle flights, reflected on the end of the shuttle program during an interview with Mark Simpson, host of WMFE-FM's "Intersection." Space Shuttle Atlantis, scheduled to launch Friday, will conclude the program with its final flight. "It's an engineering marvel every time it flies, and so from that perspective it's the most complex vehicle ever built," Leinbach says. "We will never in our lifetime, certainly, ever see another vehicle like it, and it's gotten better over the years." The shuttle had not grown obsolete but more technologically advanced through the years, and discontinuing the program before another spacecraft is in place jeopardizes the International Space Station, Leinbach says. Until NASA develops another spacecraft, astronauts will fly into space on Russian vehicles. Not only will thousands of Kennedy Space Center workers lose their jobs, no one will be able to reach the International Space Station if the Russian program encounters a problem, he says. "If I were in charge, and I'm not, but if I were in charge I would do it the other way," Leinbach says. "I wouldn't shut down (the program) until the next process is underway." Leinbach doesn't know how space workers will react when Atlantis lands for the last time. Many have put in 20 or 30 years. Leinbach will remain at Kennedy Space Center and work on commercial launches, but he doesn't know precisely what his job will be. He says the layoffs at Kennedy Space Center are like a family breaking up. "It's an American icon. Anywhere in the world if people pay attention to the news they know it's America launching the shuttle. No one else does that. And now we won't, either," he says. "To a degree we're losing a bit of our American identity by shutting the system down. But all of that is overshadowed by the human element, people getting laid off. It's just a tragedy."

Mike Leinbach (left) with "Intersection" host Mark Simpson. Photo Credit: Amy Green.