Looking South from a bridge over the Inter Coastal Waterway.
Lift off of Shuttle Atlantis as seen from my backyard.
Posted on 07/20/2011 6:24:14 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Well this is it folks.. It has been a fun ride.
It is a shame that I didn't get to see those birds launch in person. Oh well should have moved to Florida.
For a small fee (plus airfare) I will come and beat on your trashcans at 3 AM. It should produce the same effect.
Did you read post number 159 by any chance?
Have they seen the movie, "October Sky"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru-ho1ZZj-4
BWAhahahahahahahahaha.....
Looking South from a bridge over the Inter Coastal Waterway.
Lift off of Shuttle Atlantis as seen from my backyard.
Those are Wonderful! Thank You, FRiend!
Here's the sticker: SpaceX (or whoever) is going to make a profit by selling hardware to the government, not by going into space themselves. It's a fine distinction, but the key difference is that the second the government closes their purse the space "market" collapses. In truth it's still a government program run (at a massive loss) with taxpayer bucks.
Very similar to early air travel. Took government mail contracts to make it viable/profitable.
The moon mission operated using UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) and clocked the walk as beginning at 2:39 UTC on 7/21/69 - which is 22:39 EDT, 7/20/69.
So if you figure the time of your wedding in UTC, you may also have a "one small step for man" date in common. to walk on the surface of the moon
True and good, but there is an immense disparity in scale, price and public good will. Until quite recently the mail was seen by the public as an essential government service. But even a dedicated space fanatic like me can't honestly countenance the space program as an "essential" government service. There will be pushback, especially at times like now when money is scarce. If history is any predictor, the purse is more likely to spring shut than it is to spring wider.
That said, I hope you are right. Hope is all we have right now.
I was using Central Daylight Time which is what Neil’s. Buzz’s, and Michael’s watches were set to.
but we’re both right. Anyway, it was a great day in U.S. history as was today’s shuttle landing. This country did ‘em both good.
Atlantis has just left the runway at the Shuttle Landing Facility and is headed to the barn (Orbiter Processing Facility - Hangar 2). Endeavour is in Hangar 1 and Discovery is in the Vehicle Assembly Building to make room for Atlantis. Before the three orbiters are dispensed to their respective museums, I do hope someone gets a picture of them side by side. It’ll be the last time that will be possible. That would make a neat way to wrap up the shuttle program.
Never again will I see the shuttle docked to ISS. ISS itself serves as a reminder of how far we came. The greatest accomplishment of the shuttle for manned spaceflight was allowing us to learn how to build and maintain an immense structure in orbit.
ISS may not be the first space station by any means, but it is by far the largest and most complex. The challenges we faced were the most valuable part of the whole station program, and the shuttle’s crowning achievement imho.
When the shuttle program started, many people had serious doubts about our ability to safely conduct the amount of spacewalks that would be necessary to build a station of that size. We’ve now mastered extremely complex and lengthy spacewalks, and tremendously improved their safety by developing an emergency suit propulsion system. Best of all, we’ve proven we can build large, complex spacecraft in orbit. That may seem like stating the obvious, but when the shuttle started no one really knew for sure if it could be done. By 2007, the shuttle had accumulated more than 100 spacewalks, and additional walks were initiated from the space station that it helped build. The total time spent performing space station EVAs is now in excess of 1000 hours, 42 days straight over 160 EVAs. That would have seemed insurmountable pre-shuttle. Even when these plans were being laid out, they called it the “EVA wall.” We’ve now scaled that wall and learned a tremendous amount from it.
Before shuttle, the US had accomplished a grand total of 39 spacewalks from Gemini through Skylab, and almost half of those were done on the surface of the moon, not free floating in space.
Was it worth the money and lives lost? I suppose that all depends on what we decide to do with the knowledge and experience we gained. If we let it die here, then those lives were mostly lost in vain. If we continue orbital construction of complex vehicles and bases, then I would argue it was all worth it.
One day, sooner or later, we will find an asteroid with a high risk of impact, and when that happens it will take multiple launches with the same construction techniques learned here in order to build something capable of diverting it. This is not just about exploration and eventual resource utilization, though that’s certainly a big factor, it’s about defense as well.
In the years to come, when I look up and see the space station without the shuttle ever docked to it, it will remind me of what’s at stake, and how everything we learned is at risk of being lost.
Farewell Atlantis, it was good to see you up there one last time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgoVGWazev8
In 1984, while in Colorado Springs, I had the honor of seeing the Columbia traveling overhead. It was a preannounced flight path which fortunately occurred on a very clear night. I was amazed at how wickedly fast that craft moved.
I hate that guy... I really do. I've never despised a politician more than 0bama.
True private space flight is a threat to big government and world government types. We have to overcome not only the technological challenges, but also the overwhelming desire to regulate, control and smother that is so prevalent in the US and the UN.
Very nice!!!
Well.... I see dominance in space exploration and travel as a national security issue.
That’s enough for me. If people don’t get the connection, they aren’t paying attention.
You’re welcome.
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