In a House subcommittee hearing May 8, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) called on NASA to end manned space shuttle flights and suggested the agency study the option of using the orbiters as unmanned cargo vehicles for supplying the International Space Station (ISS).

"I don't want to put the orbiter back up with men and women on it," Barton said during the hearing of the House Science Committee's space and aeronautics subcommittee. "I just don't think it's safe and I don't think you can make it safe."

Although he said he doesn't blame the recent loss of Columbia on a "lack of leadership at NASA," Barton said he would not vote for any more funding for the existing orbiter fleet as a manned platform.

In his testimony to the subcommittee, Jerry Grey, director of aerospace and science policy for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), discussed the possibility of flying the shuttle with no crew. NASA has said it might consider reducing shuttle crews to two or three people following the introduction of the Orbital Space Plane (OSP) as an ISS crew return/transfer vehicle (DAILY, Nov. 19, 2002).