Final spacewalkers of Nasa's 30-year shuttle mission complete construction of ISS

Daily Mail ^ | Last updated at 2:22 PM on 28th May 2011 | By Daily Mail Reporter

[Niuhuru]

These stunning images capture the final stage of the construction of the International Space Station.

But as they marked the beginning of a new era in space exploration, the spacewalk undertaken by Gregory Chamitoff and Mike Fincke also represented an end - of Nasa's 30-year shuttle programme.

All future spacewalks - including one during the final shuttle voyage this summer - will be performed by full-time space station residents.

[Niuhuru]

Full Title: "'The pinnacle of human achievement': Final spacewalkers of Nasa's 30-year shuttle mission complete construction of International Space Station"

[I see my hands]

One day the ISS will be the BIG story. Sad but inevitable.

[Moonman62]

And after 30 years, they finally have a worthwhile scientific experiment on the ISS, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

[rusty millet]

Serious question by an ignorant jerk, but what have been the benefits of this pinnacle of achievement?

[jmcenanly]

'The pinnacle of human achievement'
I hope not. 'Pinnacle' suggests that this is the upper limit of what he will be able to do, and there is nowhere to go from here but down. I am hopeful that within our lifetimes, we will be able to outdo what we have already done, preferably in the private sector.

[relictele]

It has been sad but inevitable to watch NASA devolve from a hard-charging goal-oriented group to another federal alphabet bureaucracy interested in little more than exhausting this year’s budget with a constant eye on next year’s budget.

Contrast the leaps made from Mercury to Gemini to Apollo in under a decade with the 30-year make-work project known as the shuttle. No space mission is routine as Challenger and Columbia demonstrated but the marginal benefit of the program decreased with each successive flight. NASA PR knew this and drowned us in a sea of chirpy PC treacle and lame stunts like the wake-up music.

It’s ironic that any scientific gains made from the program have been marginalized by NASA’s happy talk and so-called outreach programs.

[mcshot]

The “so called outreach programs” may involved Muslims riding their horse Moonbot to the ISS and back using the moon as their watering hole.