why nasa stopped the space shuttle programme?

The shuttles are nearly 30 years old each. Commercial aircraft are retired when they're 15 years old, and only have a fraction of the miles on them compared to what the shuttle does each time it goes up.

The shuttles were never meant to be a permanent thing. In fact they were only a proof-of-concept that was supposed to have been replaced nearly 20 years ago. NASA didn't have the funding to replace them, however, so they've limped along ever since.

The replacement for the shuttle is behind due to budget and other issues. You can see it on NASA's webpage. It's essentially a return to the old Apollo booster rocket, with a larger cargo/command unit perched on top. While not as "nifty" as the shuttle, it is larger, more flexible, and costs 1/4 as much to launch as the shuttle.

Obama is the first president in over 10 years to increase NASA's funding, but it's still a drop in the bucket compared to what we spend each day for Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya.

As for 2012, please read some actual facts from real scientists and anthropologists. The whole 2012 myth basically states because the Mayan calendar is ending in 2012, that must mean the end of the world. Well, my Kute Kitty Kalendar ends in 2011. The world must be coming to an end, right? Bleh.

The shuttles are getting old and need to be retired sooner or later. Their retirement has actually been pushed forward from 2010. Aside from that, they have been subject to several safety concerns, most notably disasters like Columbia and Challenger. Furthermore, they are fairly expensive and take up a large part of NASA's small budget. Ultimately, however, they have fulfilled their mission. The ISS is complete and we have learned a lot from our experiemnts in Low Earth Orbit on the shuttle. Hopefully, we will continue to explore and eventually send people to Mars, an asteroid, or return to the Moon. The plan is to do this while having private businesses take over the more routine tasks of ferrying things to LEO, allowing NASA to research and expand out into space, eventually sending humans to Mars or asteroids. Not having to fund the space shuttle will help free up money for such projects. New commerical spacecraft are being developed and tested, and NASA is working on the Multi-Purpose Cew Vehicle (MPCV) for opertions beyond Low Earth Orbit. Until these new vehicles are deemed safe to carry humans, the United States will rely on Russia's Soyuz to send astronauts into space.

I think it's two reasons: the shuttle fleet is getting really old. Remember the shuttles were developed in the 1970's or early 1980's. I think there are risks to launching such old vehicles even though they are retrofitted with new ceramic heat shields after their return to earth. I believe that NASA wants to start using another platform for launches that is reusable.

Secondly, I do believe some of it has to do with the economy. Don't know how much it costs to launch a shuttle into LEO, but it has to be moderately expensive.

The reason that space was solely the realm of government agencies for so long was because it was so expensive that only governments could afford it. If new technologies or vehicles were developed that could cut down on cost of payload into LEO, then space could be privatized. I think Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic is trying to develop a new platform to get into LEO.

What is - Money yes.I havent heard of a neww program.The mayan stuff is junk science.

-Simply put; It ran out of Money. And Our Government just can't afford to subsidize the Space Program anymore... ( And Space missions are SUPER Expensive). :(

Ask obama. he decided americans the only thing America should focus on is getting killed in Afghnistan and iraq than go to space.

New program: Orion

the earths not gonna end ... and its because they decided too much money is being spent when theyre not really discovering anything new and arent likely to anytime soon

beconase we are broke and can no longer afford it and what is obama's answer to this spend more . makes sense to me i mean does it everybody spend more when there broke .

Ask Obama that is his idea of a spending cut.