"Mission complete Houston"

[Sumpter250]

At 05:57 EDT Today 7/21/11, a thirty year journey came to an end. Atlantis, the last of the Space Shuttles, made her final landing.
We have been "Space Aliens" for longer than some here have been alive! We have "Boldly gone where no man has gone before", and now, we rest. Oh, it was on this day, July 21, 1969 -- 42 years ago -- that Man's footprint first appeared on the moon.

[tetters]

Saw that this morning. Fantastic and yet bittersweet at the same time. I'm going to miss watching those birds take off.

[ezdays]

How sad to see this era come to an end. I do remember that day, watching There's nothing right now to take it's place and that's a shame. One would have thought that NASA would have started on a replacement project years ago and have something ready to launch just about now.

Knowing how congress deals with these things, I'm guessing that they'll take what was NASA's funding, and give it to the Russians to help further their space program. Just a wild guess, but probably not too far from the truth.

[ngauger]

Keep thinking positive.. The Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions all ended with tears of sorrow and the wonder of great accomplishments. Comcast has a page of Shuttle accomplishments here:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20110720/SCIENCE-US-SPACE-SHUTTLE-ACHIEVEMENTS/?cid=hero_media">http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/new ... hero_media</a><!-- m -->

If it were not for the Shuttle the Hubble Space Telescope would most likely not be a reality (It just discovered a 4th moon around Pluto in the last few days)

The ISS Would never have been completed this quickly... And a bunch of "Zero Gravity" experiments could not have been completed both onboard the Shuttle and the ISS. Not to mention the Amateur Radio contacts that most definitly inspired some students to get involved in Amateur (Ham) Radio... There was a Radio Operator (or more than one) on every shuttle mission and/or on the ISS and the ISS station was used thousands of times being contacted by "Earth Stations" Lots of FUN!!!! and no, so far, I have not contacted the ISS... but there's still time, I'm sure

As far as funds, the money will still go to NASA, but part will go to the new "Private" designers of manned missions in space.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://mashable.com/2011/07/06/private-space-race/">http://mashable.com/2011/07/06/private-space-race/</a><!-- m -->

The Russians will be ferrying our Astronauts along with their Cosmonauts on their Soyuz flights. Of course, the USA will have to pay Russia $56 to $63 Million dollars a seat. So that will not sit well with the US politicians or the American public that wants to "keep the monies here".

[nachoman]

That's a cool photo. You can actually see the wing tip vorticies

As for the replacement - we've got a private company - SpaceX that could be sending cargo to the ISS before the end of the year, and people within three years. A private company sending people into orbit. If that's not the American dream, I don't know what is.

[Mike Kieran]

What a shame. I heard that GERN is launching a space program for lunar flux. Steam powered rocket ships anyone? It's a shame to see the program come to an end. NASA has some kind of program similar to the original Saturn rockets and lunar landers. Can you imagine if they had today's electronics in the original space ships?

[Sumpter250]

A private company sending people into orbit. If that's not the American dream, I don't know what is.

A private company sending people into orbit.........for less than a "million bucks", round trip!

[MasonJar]

The Russians will be ferrying our Astronauts along with their Cosmonauts on their Soyuz flights. Of course, the USA will have to pay Russia $56 to $63 Billion dollars a seat. So that will not sit well with the US politicians or the American public that wants to "keep the monies here".

Mikey -

I thought it was millions, not billions per seat. That's in line with the NASA cost to put the shuttle up, although it could also carry a bunch of neat stuff for the astronauts to do as well...

I must say I am very proud to say that Canada went on every mission, and is resident at the ISS even now...
   

More obvious here on the double-ended ISS arm:
   



Go Canada!    


Andrew

[steinjr]

Fantastic and yet bittersweet at the same time. I'm going to miss watching those birds take off.

Me too. Despite the Challenger and Columbia accidents, it has been a good program.

Here is to the memory of the 14 brave men and women who perished aboard those two lost shuttles:

1996-01-28: STS-51 - Challenger
(left to right, rear row first)
Ellison Onizuka
Christa McAuliffe
Greg Jarvis
Judith Resnik
Michael J. Smith
Dick Scobee
Ronald McNair


2003-02-01: STS-107 - Columbia
(left to right)
David M. Brown
Rick D. Husband
Laurel B. Clark
Kalpana Chawla
Michael P. Anderson
William McCool
Ilan Ramon



Per Aspera Ad Astra!

Stein

[ngauger]

The Russians will be ferrying our Astronauts along with their Cosmonauts on their Soyuz flights. Of course, the USA will have to pay Russia $56 to $63 Billion dollars a seat. So that will not sit well with the US politicians or the American public that wants to "keep the monies here".

Mikey -

I thought it was millions, not billions per seat. That's in line with the NASA cost to put the shuttle up, although it could also carry a bunch of neat stuff for the astronauts to do as well...


Andrew

OOps - Yup - i corrected it to "Millions" Thanks!!

Always liked the technology of the Canadian Arms

[Steamtrains]

I remember the FIRST shuttle launch...Sitting in the dark glued to the TV, pushing that baby up. I think it was the collective "push" of millions that finally got it off the ground, after several "scrubbed" attempts.....

[Mike Kieran]

NASA has future space ships on the drawing board. What I wish they would do is not put in unnecessary technology. The hatches were electrically operated while the Russian spacecraft had manual cranks. It's just a matter of what can be fixed easier in space and keeping it simple. I remember the story about how NASA spent millions of dollars developing a pen that could be used in zero gravity. The Russians turned around and told them that was nice, they just use a pencil.

The one thing that I would avoid doing if I were NASA is naming the ships anything with the letter C for obvious superstitious reasons.

[ngauger]

NASA has future space ships on the drawing board. What I wish they would do is not put in unnecessary technology. The hatches were electrically operated while the Russian spacecraft had manual cranks. It's just a matter of what can be fixed easier in space and keeping it simple.

Yeah, the frivolous USA strikes again And of course, there must be triple redundancy on all such nonsensical connections..

I remember the story about how NASA spent millions of dollars developing a pen that could be used in zero gravity. The Russians turned around and told them that was nice, they just use a pencil.

HEY!!! I had one of those "Fisher Space Pens" and I enjoyed writing upside down, while laying on the couch, studing for those school tests ~ which ... I always seemed to fai..... uhh We may have found an ongoing "cause and effect" problem here....
........ But it was a COOL PEN!!!! Just 'cause it cost "real" money to make, was immaterial.. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

The one thing that I would avoid doing if I were NASA is naming the ships anything with the letter C for obvious superstitious reasons.

Wow!!! I never thought of that!!!

[Mike Kieran]

If the US used pencils, they would probably use an electric pencil sharpener (DOH!!!).

I swear by those Paper Mate mechanical pencils. I'm not a technophobe, I just think that stuff should work when it's marketed and sometimes we over tech stuff.

As for the naming of the ships, my mind is just a scary place. Ask the many voices that reside there.

[Sumpter250]

As for the naming of the ships, my mind is just a scary place. Ask the many voices that reside there.

" Ask the many voices that reside there. ( I'd get professional help with this one -- --, this one is scary ) "