Thoughts on the Space Shuttle

Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | April 27, 2012 | Rush Limbaugh

[shove_it]

>>”I wonder if anyone ever considered leaving a shuttle at the space station as a lifeboat?”

Good question.

Answer:

A Soyuz space capsule took the first crew to the International Space Station in November 2000. Since that time, at least one Soyuz has always been at the Station, generally to serve as a lifeboat should the crew have to return to Earth unexpectedly.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/soyuz/index.html

In theory, the station crew might also climb into one of the American spacecraft used to transport humans to and from the ISS—either the Discovery, the Atlantis, or the Endeavor. But the U.S. shuttles are used mainly to deliver equipment to and perform construction on the station, and they have only enough power to stay in orbit for about two weeks. The Soyuz, by contrast, is a lightweight, energy-efficient vehicle that can remain docked at the space station for up to six months. There’s always at least one Soyuz docked at any given time—and two when a new crew is rotating in.

There have been past attempts to create a dedicated exit pod. In the late 1990s, NASA started developing a “crew return vehicle” for emergency situations but later scrapped the project.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/03/cosmic_lifeboats.html

[RedMDer]

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[Young Werther]

At Roll Out! The Enterprise crew was there at Trekkie request.

[DoughtyOne]

There was a time when I was pleased to hear the words, Space Shuttle. These days those two words remind me that with thirty years to formulate something better, our government did nothing. They gave away something like $15-20 trillion dollars in welfare during that time, but... “NO SPACE PROGRAM FOR YOU!”

I’m not saying we had to develop something with 100% government funds either. Some space focused contests giving out perhaps $100 billion over that period in time, would have sparked a new space boom.

$100 billion vs $15-50 trillion... Guess that was just too much to ask.

“Space Shuttle”, there! Now thrust upward and twist...

[Nowhere Man]

Heard this on the radio during my deliveries today. I loved it. BTW, my uncle worked at NASA from Project Mercury to the Space Shuttle He passed in 2008. I'm sure he'd be saddened at this. He always thought the Shuttle was the wrong fork in the road to take but he did his work and beamed with pride when it went up into space. He worked on the electronics in the cockpit of the Shuttle as well as in the earlier space capsules.

He also remembered working the first launch of the Saturn V, Apollo 4, November 9th, 1967. My grandfather passed away in Jacksonville the same day and until my father could get down there, my uncle and aunt had to take care of things. I think she had to start the funeral process because my uncle could not get away to handle things since we was needed at that launch.

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.