Space Shuttle Reentering Earth's Atmosphere

Such a sad day. The day we abandoned space exploration. The one thing the government was doing right. :(

Im hoping ifthis group of incompetents up in DC ever get things straightened back out, we can get the space program back up and running again. Too much out there to not learn about it. Wont be too long when colonizing on another planet will be something we need to start looking at if the population keeps growing like it is and with all the advances in medical and technology in general, I dont see why it would slow down.
 
I remember growing up on the space program as a kid, my dad worked as a contractor on parts of the shuttles.
 
We'll be back if we know what's good for us...

...and those asshats in politics get their priorities straight.
 
Guess I was expecting something a bit more dramatic.. pic reminded me of images NORAD uses when tracking Santa Clause on Dec 24th..

GoogleNorad_610x457.png
 
What's everyone so upset about? We still can continue exploring space. Our astronauts still can get to the ISS. All they have to do is hitch a ride with...

the Russians.

:(
 
The Space Station needs some better cameras.
 
Mr. Wolf said:
What's everyone so upset about? We still can continue exploring space. Our astronauts still can get to the ISS. All they have to do is hitch a ride with...

the Russians.

:(
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For a few years yes, but it should be shorter than the gap between Apollo and STS
 
Mr. Wolf said:
What's everyone so upset about? We still can continue exploring space. Our astronauts still can get to the ISS. All they have to do is hitch a ride with...

the Russians.

:(
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America's new motto:

"We used to make it. Now we outsource it."
 
tigerade said:
For a few years yes, but it should be shorter than the gap between Apollo and STS
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Apollo-Soyuz flew in July, 1975.
STS-1 was April 1981.

That's 5 years and 9 months. I live in South Florida and just visited KSC about 3 weeks ago. They told us they're planning on a minimum delay of 5 years until the next launch. Even assuming you are all correct and the 'best case' scenarios all come to fruition, it's still going to be damn close.

And I know a lot of people are holding out hope for the "Privatization" of the space program, but let's get real: Once the privateers discover that it's going to be difficult to make record profits on space exploration (ergo there aren't many CEO Executive Bonuses to be had in the Space Business), you watch how quickly the 'Private Sector' loses its enthusiasm to be in the Space business.

In the meantime, we'll pay the Russians $63 million dollars for every astronaut that catches a ride on a Soyuz mission. Now *that's* money well spent! :rolleyes:
 
tigerade said:
The shuttle program is finished, space exploration is not.
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Is for right now. Yeah there will still be the Hubble and its successor and there will be telescopes but manned voyages into space are done, for now at least.
 
pfc_m_drake said:
Apollo-Soyuz flew in July, 1975.
STS-1 was April 1981.

That's 5 years and 9 months. I live in South Florida and just visited KSC about 3 weeks ago. They told us they're planning on a minimum delay of 5 years until the next launch. Even assuming you are all correct and the 'best case' scenarios all come to fruition, it's still going to be damn close.

And I know a lot of people are holding out hope for the "Privatization" of the space program, but let's get real: Once the privateers discover that it's going to be difficult to make record profits on space exploration (ergo there aren't many CEO Executive Bonuses to be had in the Space Business), you watch how quickly the 'Private Sector' loses its enthusiasm to be in the Space business.

In the meantime, we'll pay the Russians $63 million dollars for every astronaut that catches a ride on a Soyuz mission. Now *that's* money well spent! :rolleyes:
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Disagree, its time for it to go private.
The taxpayer can no longer pay the bill (except for military in space).

There is money in research and mining minerals on the moon.
Space travel is the only industry that was not allowed
to flourish because NASA would not even allow "permits"
to fly in space.

Its been a good ride, now lets privatise NASA, and let
it lead the next wave into space, but not on my dime.
 
msny said:
Disagree, its time for it to go private.
The taxpayer can no longer pay the bill (except for military in space).

There is money in research and mining minerals on the moon.
Space travel is the only industry that was not allowed
to flourish because NASA would not even allow "permits"
to fly in space.

Its been a good ride, now lets privatise NASA, and let
it lead the next wave into space, but not on my dime.
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Well, the good news is that, whatever happens, it will definitely still be on your dime.

And I'm certainly not meaning for this to be violent disagreement, but this charade where NASA is going to "focus" on traveling to an asteroid and then to Mars while the private companies do their own thing too strikes me as...well...a charade.

All the while both my dimes as well as yours goto Russia because, frankly, we have no other choice (which, incidentally violates NASA's #1 rule of not having any backup options, but I digress).

Privitazition strikes me as a money grab. I don't think they will be successful (take a look at India's launch record and while you do keep in mind that their government invests cubic rupees in their space program)...and ironically I think we (and all of our other taxpayer brethren) will both be left holding the bill.
 
pfc_m_drake said:
Well, the good news is that, whatever happens, it will definitely still be on your dime.
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Which is better... $290 million to contract 4 companies to create man-rated spaceships

or $1 billion a shuttle flight.

SpaceX created an entire rocket company, including a manufacturing facility, a test facility, launch pad, 2 rockets and 1 spaceship for the cost of less than 1 shuttle flight.
 
FrozenLiquidity said:
We'll be back if we know what's good for us...

...and those asshats in politics get their priorities straight.
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Not the politics fault entirely. The shuttle was overdue for retirement and NASA wasted too much time and money on an even more expensive method of getting to space from Earth - particularly since the project they're working on calls for manned deep space exploration - the Constellation program. I believe it's the wrong approach. We need to figure out how to get to space from space - particularly the moon or some source of fuel from low gravity environment since we use much of our fuel breaking out of our atmosphere - at least that's how I'm reading things. If I'm mistaken, kindly educate me please!
 
tigerade said:
Which is better... $290 million to contract 4 companies to create man-rated spaceships

or $1 billion a shuttle flight.

SpaceX created an entire rocket company, including a manufacturing facility, a test facility, launch pad, 2 rockets and 1 spaceship for the cost of less than 1 shuttle flight.
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You do realize that's just the latest round of money awarded. SpaceX alone has already received billions (with a 'B' and plural) of dollars and contract awards from NASA and the government (read: the taxpayers).

All for not much return at this point, I might add.

Look, I'm not wishing failure on the private companies. Quite the contrary, because frankly it's good for my career (aerospace engineer) and my company
which yes, is private :)

But my skepticism remains...mainly because I've see promises of better, faster, cheaper before.
 
MacLeod said:
Such a sad day. The day we abandoned space exploration. The one thing the government was doing right. :(

Im hoping ifthis group of incompetents up in DC ever get things straightened back out, we can get the space program back up and running again. Too much out there to not learn about it. Wont be too long when colonizing on another planet will be something we need to start looking at if the population keeps growing like it is and with all the advances in medical and technology in general, I dont see why it would slow down.
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sooner or later mother nature will step in an put us back in line, one incurable nasty disease in one of the hugely overpopulated countries will spread like wildfire and bring our numbers back in check since we cant seem to manage to do it ourselves

DC needs to fix its spending issues, id rather see them in space than running pointless wars that drag on for ever costing insane amounts of money, in the end Osama did what he said he would destroy US economy, they got him but look at the cost
 
msny said:
Disagree, its time for it to go private.
The taxpayer can no longer pay the bill (except for military in space).

There is money in research and mining minerals on the moon.
Space travel is the only industry that was not allowed
to flourish because NASA would not even allow "permits"
to fly in space.

Its been a good ride, now lets privatise NASA, and let
it lead the next wave into space, but not on my dime.
Click to expand...

The only reason the shuttle cost so much to launch, was because the military demanded they create a flying brick large enough to bring their shit into space.
 
wizdum said:
The only reason the shuttle cost so much to launch, was because the military demanded they create a flying brick large enough to bring their shit into space.
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This is an interesting comment. Where did you get that?

I think the privatization is an excellent idea. No longer constrained by government agendas, many think tanks and projects houses will be able to get their idea off the ground. Literally! Scaled Composites is a great example. They've got brilliant designs, proven to be capable.
spaceshipone-2.jpg
 
cmadki4 said:
This is an interesting comment. Where did you get that?

I think the privatization is an excellent idea. No longer constrained by government agendas, many think tanks and projects houses will be able to get their idea off the ground. Literally! Scaled Composites is a great example. They've got brilliant designs, proven to be capable.
spaceshipone-2.jpg
Click to expand...

The original vehicle designed by NASA was designed for crew only, with a small cargo area. The plan was to still use heavy lift rockets to get material into space, and use the shuttle to "shuttle" people from the ground into space (where they would dock with a space station). The military complained that the shuttle would not be able to carry their large satellites, so the original design was scrapped for the current design with a much larger cargo hold.
 
I still think privatization could bring some nice new ideas into the space industry, i'm just saying that you can't blame NASA entirely for the expensive flying brick they had to use.
 
Funny, no one asks what is taking the picture from that angle.
 
It's not the ISS, it has never been in position to take that kind of image in the past.
 
I dont believe we can privatize NASA's job just yet. When we get to the point where we're mining on asteroids, then theyll be a place for privatization because there will be a lot of money in it.

I could be wrong but I dont see a lot of money or profit incentive to make Boeing for instance, want to spend a billion dollars just to go out into space and gaze at stars.

I think that at this stage in the game, the government is still needed for this. Which is weird I know for a rabid small government guy like me to be advocating for but I think space exploration is vitally important to our future and even to our present and it needs to be done.
 
One thing I dislike about NASA waiting for private companies to develop the next gen space vehicle is that private companies are driven by profit, and from some interviews I saw on documentaries, they are more interested in space tourism and those stuff, not sending people to Mars.

I still doubt any private company would be interested in developing new vehicle capable of taking us back to the moon and beyond. Their focus is probably more on developing cheap commercialized space flight that are open to the public
 
The main problem with privatization of NASA and going into space is that these "private" companies are not private. They are public and thus have to answer to their share holders first.

Meaning customer support and doing what's right come 2nd and 3rd over profit for their share holders. We still need NASA as a government agency.

Maybe we should privatize the top levels of government.... Oh some say it's already privatized.
 
It's a sad day for America, now millions and millions of our dollars, are going to go to the russians, to get our guys, up in space. I heard that the price per seat, for each astronaut has dramatically rose. There's going to be a lot of money from the USA going to the russians.
 
Well, I hope the presidents new direction for NASA to become the self-esteem cheerleader for Muslim contributions to science and engineering (centuries ago) is successful. Yeah, okay. :rolleyes:
 
pfc_m_drake said:
You do realize that's just the latest round of money awarded. SpaceX alone has already received billions (with a 'B' and plural) of dollars and contract awards from NASA and the government (read: the taxpayers).
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still pocket change compared to what the shuttle cost. not bad mouthing shuttle, it's a wonderful machine and I'll miss it, but it's definitely not that cost-effective. Usually between government vs private sector it's usually the private sector that wins in cost-effectiveness.

Also still a hell out of a lot cheaper than what Constellation would have cost. I'm glad the administration canceled it.

I share some skepticism but I think that there is a lot of reasons to be optimistic. One of the four CCDev2 companies will probably succeed, most likely Boeing or SpaceX. If no one succeeds, we still have the SLS/Orion on the horizon. NASA is not dead, space exploration is not dead, it's very much alive.
 
It's a big step from low earth orbit to minig minerals on the moon, and I don't think space tourism alone is going to be enough to fund such a program.It would take many decades before it becomes profitable. I know many fantasize about traveling to space, but on the whole, most people except the most eccentric ones are too busy with life on earth for such a joyride.
The money to motivate those private companies might come from NASA itself, and other organizations, who might "hitch a ride" with a private space ship instead of going to Russia...
 
CMD said:
It's not the ISS, it has never been in position to take that kind of image in the past.
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hmmm?
This unprecedented view of the space shuttle Atlantis, appearing like a bean sprout against clouds and city lights, on its way home, was photographed by the Expedition 28 crew of the International Space Station. Airglow over Earth can be seen in the background.
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-http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2014.html

unless you're implying there is some sort of conspiracy/ cover up.

I was actually confused by the title of the article, isn't the bittersweet image of the day brought to us by the ISS, not the shuttle?
 
I don't know what you guys are crying about.

The space program has almost never been anything but an ego boost and I "Yes, we can" moment.

I'll be glad when those BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS of dollars are spent helping the less fortunate, investing in start-up companies or even giving us some damn health insurance!
 
Trackr said:
I don't know what you guys are crying about.

The space program has almost never been anything but an ego boost and I "Yes, we can" moment.

I'll be glad when those BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS of dollars are spent helping the less fortunate, investing in start-up companies or even giving us some damn health insurance!
Click to expand...

In every space thread like this, there's always got to be "that guy".

Yeah, congrats on being him.
 
I agree with the spirit of what the government was wanting to do but they should have never done it the way they did. I'm all for retiring an old spacecraft but they should have had a cheaper & better spacecraft ready to replace it. That's like retiring all of our military jets because they are old and cost a lot to maintain and asking the Russians to borrow theirs to have an air force.
 
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