Shuttle Final Destination

Saw that fly over DC, pretty sweet. The end of an era.

 

BBC News - US space companies prepare for space station docking

Two US rocket companies are readying the first private space missions to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX and Orbital both have multi-billion dollar Nasa contracts to supply cargo to the station, filling the void left by the retirement last year of the space shuttle.

Fascinating that internet fortunes made with eBay and Google are behind the new commercial US space program.

 

It is sad and disappointing. All part of this globalization going down.

 

There were quite a few pitfalls with the shuttle program, but the main purpose of it being an orbital spacecraft would have made it viable for supporting the international space station. Issues with age, maintainence, and overall safety made the shuttle's retirement inevitable. At one point NASA was looking for a shuttle replacement with a fully reusable vehicle. Looks like they're letting the private sector try to delve into that...which may or may not let space tourism happen.

With the funding they have at hand...looks like they're focusing on deep space exploration:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft)

 

Nothing to do with "globalization" and everything to do with the "government is bad" jihadists in the US Congress.

NASA budget $18B
Oil company tax subsidies $28B
V22 Osprey development budget $30B

 

It's easier & cheaper to pay the Russians for a ride.

We don't have money for a lot of things, a manned space program is one of them. The talent will find jobs elsewhere just as the Germans found jobs elsewhere.

 

Glad Ike, JFK, LBJ thought otherwise. NASA and US space program is one of the greatest things the US ever did.

With NASA budget at $18B and oil company subsidies at $28B, It's more priorities than money. End oil company subsidies, NASA gets $30B and fuel cell, battery, solar power research gets $15B.

 

Which for us forward thinking humans determined to allow for the survival of the species/next gen hominid, is a good thing... :rockon:

 

I don't believe the Shuttle ever came within an order of magnitude of its promised turnaround times and payload-to-orbit costs. After the Challenger disaster, the Reagan administration booted commercial launches from the Shuttle, necessitating a privatized launch business.

Given the post-Apollo budget realities, the Shuttle and International Space Station programs ended up putting the far more productive and cost effective unmanned space exploration programs onto a starvation diet.

 

I've experienced day and night STS launches. Sad to see another icon of American technological superiority abandoned.

It's a shame that NASA was defunded. Yet another legacy of a failed Administration's world view while our stated enemies are testing nuke-capable ICBM's.

However, if you're looking for a Florida single family home, that area is flooded with new foreclosures. Brits are doing just that, snapping up deals that are even more attractive with the recent USD collapse.

The solution? New regulations! Future astronauts have a new marker:

"Along with training in spacewalks, robotics, and piloting a spaceship, NASA is requiring that all future astronauts learn to speak and read Russian."

Read more: English Language the Latest Casualty of Space Race | Fox News

English Language the Latest Casualty of Space Race | Fox News

 

Which administration(s) would that be? I'm thinking that the defunding started with Apollos 18-20, during the Nixon Administration.

 

I have seen 2 shuttle launches at the Cape both at night. You can get pretty close by car maybe a few miles away. At least you could back in the 80's. Then you sat for hours while the mosquitos ate you alive.

When it takes off your miles away and can still feel the ground rumble and then you can feel the heat on your face as it takes off. What power! What guts to ride that ship!

 

One sees the consequence of the "Government is bad" ideology that has been in power the last 30 years. NASA being the best of government but as is the case with ideologues, no critical thinking.

True but Reagan and the Bushes are gone. An object lesson in not electing the "Government is bad" ideologues again. The "privatize the US space program" started by Reagan in lieu of NASA is good but it should have been in addition to more Shuttle and Apollo II programs not instead of them.

As for Iran and Korea, don't really see a connection with NASA.

Yes. Another sign of the "Government is bad" ideology, no Wall St regulation and the resulting Wall St mortgage fraud Great Recession along with no NASA. Good government missing in action in both cases.

But again, with a $1.3T per year military budget, more a case of bad spending priorities.

If Reagan and Bushes were going to run up $14T in debt, at least they could have mortgaged our future for a moon base vs. "Camp Cupcake" in Baghdad.

 

Why would anyone lamenting NASA's gutting if they had a "Government is bad" ideology? You have it backwards.

Eisenhower started NASA. You'll need to find another reason to bash Reagan and Bush.

They're developing missiles. Some shuttle payloads involved classified military technology to detect and defend against those threats.

Right. Government regulation aka CRA helped how?

You're aware of the wave of cuts and layoffs of US military over the past two years, right?

 

That shows quite extreme ideology to not draw distinctions between Eisenhower, Reagan, or Bush simply because they belonged to the same party.

 

NASA was a direct response to the Cold War. The evil empire of Russia was taking the high ground of space, and we needed to get into the game. It's easy to fund war-time projects, and NASA was no exception.

Once we beat the Russians to the moon, it was obvious that they had largely conceded the battle. NASA's very reason for existence faded with the end of the space race. The final moon shots were canceled for budgetary reasons, even though the equipment was already built. NASA was adrift.

Low earth orbit space stations became the default focus, and that's what we have been playing with ever since. The Shuttle was designed for this sort of mission, but once again it was largely a military vehicle. The original Shuttle design was for a much smaller, more economical vehicle, but military requirements demanded the large Shuttle that was recently retired.

Without a crisis - a cold war, for example - NASA has had a hard time convincing Washington to spend money on space. Decades of neglect and foot-dragging have left us without a manned vehicle and launching platform. For decades, Congress and the Executive Branch have played a game of kick the can, so now we are where we are.

Tom

 

"Where we are" is so completely removed from what's expected from NASA that it's an embarrassment:

Bolden told Al Jazeera that the "foremost" mission he had been given by Obama was "to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering."

NASA's Muslim outreach: Al Jazeera told first | Washington Examiner

 

Incredible, isn't it? I was fortunate to experience launches from the friends and family area by the big countdown clock. A friend was once Pilot and later Commander. When he eventually retired from the Navy he applied to the major air carriers but was rejected as overqualified! Instead, he now works for the Russian space agency at Star City.