General Discussions

Farewell, My Space Shuttle

POSTED BY: cljohnston108
UPDATED: Thursday, July 21, 2011 01:41
VIEWED: 9588
PAGE 1 of 4

CLJOHNSTON108

Thursday, July 7, 2011 11:25 PM

I actually got to get up close to Atlantis, back in '98, when she was in for Major Modification at Plant 42 in Palmdale, so I think of her as "my bird".
(Don't tell anybody, but I tapped the port side flaperon hinge with the back of my fingernail when nobody was looking! )

I just can't believe it's all over! 3/5 of my life has been devoted to this thing; you should see all the stuff I've collected!

________________________

"Spry for a dead fella!"

WHOZIT

Friday, July 8, 2011 12:07 AM

You can thank Barry Obama for killing the space program, the commies will be way ahead of us in a week.

WISHIMAY

Friday, July 8, 2011 12:54 AM

Nope, they're broke, too.

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT

Friday, July 8, 2011 2:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by whozit:
You can thank Barry Obama for killing the space program, the commies will be way ahead of us in a week.

FLAT OUT LIE!!

from Wikipedia:

Quote:

The shuttle program is scheduled for mandatory retirement in 2011, in accord with the directives President George W. Bush issued in the Vision for Space Exploration.

In an internal e-mail apparently sent August 18, 2008 to NASA managers and leaked to the press (published September 6, 2008 in the Orlando Sentinel), NASA Administrator Michael Griffin stated his belief that the Bush administration had made no viable plan for U.S. crews to participate in the International Space Station beyond 2011, and that OMB and OSTP were actually seeking its demise.[11][12] The email appeared to suggest that Griffin believed the only reasonable solution was to extend the operation of the shuttle beyond 2010, but noted that Executive Policy (i.e., the White House) is firm that there will be no extension of the shuttle retirement date,

So you can thank whoever was President in 2008. Hint-- his name was Bush.

RAHLMACLAREN

Friday, July 8, 2011 9:56 AM

"Vision for Space Exploration"? Yeah. Right. More like Blindness to Space Exploration.

--------------------------------------------------
Find here the Serenity you seek. -Tara Maclay

SIMONWHO

Friday, July 8, 2011 11:31 AM

This makes me sad. Let's hope China gets interested in space so the race starts up again. Do you really not want to be the first men on Mars?

JENJEN

Friday, July 8, 2011 1:49 PM

I'm pretty sure the point of having it end in 2011 was so Congress could approve a new budget for a new program...Not to end the program with nothing to replace it. That was Obama's choice.

I live in Florida, very close to the cape, and have seen every shuttle launch since 1990 (most of them from my backyard). This is truly a dark day, and it's incredibly sad for all the brilliant people that have worked on this program that will now be out of work. Their minds are being wasted instead of used for new and innovative technology that we all take for granted.

I am thankful that I was able to experience all that I have while I could, and I hope that soon a new program will be developed so children can have a profession to dream of once more. I'm still going to have students create spacecraft designs in class...maybe one of them will be the key, lol.

~Shiny!

CYBERSNARK

Friday, July 8, 2011 2:34 PM

This may be an unpopular viewpoint (Primus knows it took me a while to adjust to it), but based on things I've learned from other sites, the end of the shuttle program might end up being a good thing in the long run.

Don't make faces; I want us to get off this rock more than anyone, and I agree that our fate as a species is directy tied to moving into space.

But after over 50 years, NASA hasn't done it. Meanwhile, we're into the age of civillian rocketry. Between SpaceX, the Virgin Orbiters, the Falcon, and the upcoming Falcon Heavy, we're already building spaceships that China complains it can't compete with (in terms of cost and lift-capability). And we're doing it with no help from NASA. Low Earth Orbit is becoming a civillian venture, as opposed to the purview of politics and corporations --the same thing happened years ago with air travel, and with sea travel centuries ago.

All we need is to find something profitable out there to give us a destination, and we'll b able to reach the Moon, then Mars, then just about anywhere.

It's not gonna be easy or cheap, and it's probably gonna be maddeningly slow to get there, but in a hundred years or so, people may call this a triumph.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

STEGASAURUS

Friday, July 8, 2011 2:46 PM

Meh. The Government is just getting ready to go public with the Stargate program. We're going to meet our new alien allies, The Ashen, and they've promised to help us against our secret interglactic struggle against the Goa'uld. The Ashen are super nice too!

For those who are not familiar with Stargate SG-1 and view my comment as a PN type of rant, please see: http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Aschen_Prime or http://www.gateworld.net/sg1/s4/416.shtml

Some will get the joke, I'm sure.

-Steg

PIRATENEWS

Friday, July 8, 2011 5:02 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
Nope, they're broke, too.

Yeah, China is broke...after Communist Party members steal its $250-billion annual trade surplus.
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/04/11/economists-react-chinas-
trade-deficit/