Posted on 03/09/2011 9:37:33 PM PST by allmost
The one. The only. The last
(Excerpt) Read more at physorg.com ...
The Obama Administration has put the final nail in the coffin of anything this country could still be proud of. Better that NASA dedicates itself to Muslim Outreach than explore the final frontier.
Yeah. That’s the ticket.
(retch...)
Semper Fi.
And a pity that two of her sister ships (and their crew) met such an unfortunate end.
A picture-perfect landing to mark the end of a beautiful run. The Shuttle is truly one of mankind’s crowning achievements.
I watched a replay of the post flight press conference with the crew tonight, there was a question about the remaining shuttle operation being taken over by a private consortium of companies.
The question was put to the Mission Commander.. was the remaining shuttle fleet “robust enough” to last another 10 years.
In a nutshell he said, if maintained in their present form .. YES !!!!
The song “Countdown” by rock group RUSH, from 1982. Sycronized to some pretty good shuttle photos and video. Based on the group’s visit to the control room for one of the early launches. Now a countdown to the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5vPrrnb6tw&feature=related
“...This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams”
Recall the Cowboy Bebop episode involving a rehabilitated Shuttle Columbia. Perhaps it’s only fitting that it should remain the object of that tribute.
“1970’s technology served us well.”
There’s no need to throw away stuff that still works and does what it’s supposed to do. That’s where we went wrong in the ‘70s. The proven Apollo spacecraft was discarded in favor of this hugely expensive shuttle program that didn’t live up to its promise of being reusable.
The Russians got it right. They’re flying a spacecraft from the ‘60s on a rocket from the ‘50s. It’s worked out very well for them, and they haven’t lost any cosmonauts on a flight since 1971.
Same feeling I had at the end of the Mercury flights....Then Gemini....then Apollo...then the ISS....then the Shuttle missions. What could surpass those events? Damn, what a time. Prayers and thanks for all of the brave American Men and Women who have sat on top of a Redstone, Saturn or any other booster to reach for the stars. Corny? Maybe to the youngn’s but that is how we felt then. ‘Reach for the stars’ was kind of a mantra. The ‘Space Race’? Russia against the USA. What a time.
Don't start with that.
Exactly.
I was watching the Discovery landing today and recalling a younger version of myself watching a black-and-white version of a similar event in the early 60s’...and thinking even as a kid what a marvelous time to be alive. When you remember those pictures of the little blue marble taken from the surface of the Moon, it tends to put all of our little issues into a whole new perspective. And shows what we are truly capable of. The Shuttle maybe be a “space-borne pickup trucK” but it has turned Jack Kennedy’s vision into a commonplace occurrence and made it possible for the first time in history for mankind to live outside his native planet.
What I was saying is that we were better off using throwaway spacecraft as they did. Much cheaper and safer.
That said, we ought to not be dependent on Russia to go into space. We need our own manned vehicles simply as a matter of national pride. Unfortunately, those are foreign words to the current president.
There seems to be some debris in your path these days.
Well, maybe they can figure out where that rock came from...
One of my sons has worked at the base nearly 30 yrs - and on the shuttle program, QC. Every time I visit, he takes me for a tour.
When he was little, we lived in Cocoa Beach - "Mercury 7" days.
My brother was with the space program from the get-go - a space electronics, radar, sonar engineering specialist. Cocoa Beach, then, was a sleepy little town with 2 main roads running the length - and about the only Inn was the Ramada - where the Mercury 7 stayed when in town...My favorite was Wally Schirra - a really nice person. (And gorgeous dark auburn hair ;o)...)
My brother is long retired.
sy son soon will be too - thanks to our TIC (Traitor in Chief.)
All told, with the thousands already laid off at the base and the rest shortly to follow - and the businesses that were base-dependent, that area will lose bout 35,000 jobs. And the base jobs are specialized.
My son is in his early 50's. He'll lose his job, his insurance, his retirement and a long ways to go to SocSec - which will now be a lot less, due to the years to come...with what for work?
Not a lot of call for a QC booster rocket fuels - Houston Space Center is suffering the same fate.
Speaking of Social Security, I was looking at my statement for 2011 - where it says that we have not had a cost of living increase since 2008. Obmas tired to freeze military pay for 3 years - but that didn't fly. So he gave them the smallest raise since Viet Nam. (His very first months in office, he proposed that wounded soldiers, if they were married, pay for their own treatments through private insurance. Even the dems didn't dare pursue that one.
Then there's the other millions who have been put out of work n the past two years.
Those scruffy demonstrators - who HAVE over-paid jobs and benefits, in Wisconsin make me sick.
The shuttle had a lot of capability. It's the only thing that's been able to put up a crew along with a heavy payload. To match it Russian style, you'd need a heavy lifter and several rendevous with crews, but then there would still be no shuttle bay. Manned space flight is dead without the shuttle, well, except for the ISS, I guess. We'll see how long that lasts.
Okay youngn’n....please expound.
Thanks for your family’s contribution to what was one of our finest efforts.
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