Posted on 07/08/2014 12:34:42 PM PDT by lbryce
Weather was no concern for Atlantis as she soared into the skies today at 15:29 UTC. Drama before launch with a piece of ground support equipment halted the launch briefly however it was quickly cleared.
This was the final ever launch of a Space Shuttle after 135 missions spanning over 30 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
That G*D DAMNED “Space Shuttle” LOCKED this country into LOW EARTH ORBIT for over 30 years. WHAT A WASTE!
I remember it like it was yesterday. Three years gone. Sadly, United Space Alliance folks vanished within days of the launch. I was lucky due to our contract being landing plus 30 days. It was like one of those scenes from a movie where everyone vanishes except for a few. The Friday after landing, KSC was like ghost town. Thanks for 36 years. I was lucky enough to get laid off and retire the same day. If they were still flying, I’d probably still be there.
The Shuttle didn’t lock us into anything. Bean counting bureaucrats and a Congress that lacked vision did. The Shuttle was fine for what it was. It was not the answer to everything.
I’m glad that’s finally over. Now we can get back to primary missions... like Muslim outreach.
I was just last week watching some old Saturn V launch footage. What an awesome machine that was...
[ That G*D DAMNED “Space Shuttle” LOCKED this country into LOW EARTH ORBIT for over 30 years. WHAT A WASTE! ]
i blame the idiot Dims in congress, we should have a freekin moon base, but instead we have food stamps...
Imagine the tech that could have been developed in order to support a moon colony....
I also blame the stupid UN Outer Space treaty for screwing up private property rights in space.
I took my kids to Kennedy Space Center this past spring break. The Atllantis exhibit was incredible., especially after watching a short film on the orbiter and then the screen lifts up and a silhouette of Atlantis is in the back ground. Very dramatic.
I think it was Nixon who led the way when it came to pulling funds from NASA.
I used to install Car Alarms years ago. One Customer came in for the advertised $39.95 Special. It was an “All in One Unit” nothing fancy and not hyped up to be in the Ad that was run in the Paper.
I install it in the car and within 2 hours He was back bitching and complaining about everything it did and didn’t do.
I spent the next 2 weeks trying to appease this guy, INCLUDING getting him on the phone with the Tech at the Manufacturer.
He tells them they are stupid and don’t know $h!t. Hangs up from them and turns to Me and says: “I helped build the REDUNDANCY SYSTEMS ON THE SATURN V ROCKET!” I WANT MY MONEY BACK!
I stood there for a few seconds absorbing that and then asked “Then why don’t you build your own alarm?”
Then I sent him to the Cashier for a refund while I removed the alarm from his car.
There have been a lot of complaints about Texas not getting a shuttle for there museum. They already got one, it’s just not in one place......some of it over here, over there, and who knows where.
At least I can tell the children that I lived during and experienced the final years of America’s greatness....
Space shuttle Atlantis flies home in this image captured from the International Space Station. Atlantis was completing STS-135, the last mission of the shuttle program. Credit: NASA[?]
I have 35mm shots of the TV of the very first shuttle launch.
I have an ache and a longing for the America I used to know, and a sadness for her today.
Saw it 2 weeks ago and couldn’t agree more. When that screen went up the hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end. The next generation Orion project looks to put us back on the track established by Apollo. Back beyond Earth orbit once again!
These days we have more interesting rockets, capable of maneuvering like 1950’s sci-fi rockets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7cXwrJqP4s
I was fortunate to be at the last launch of the Shuttle. It had rained all night and there was some concern the launch would be scrubbed. The skies cleared and we received word the launch was a go. It was one of the most amazing things I’d ever seen.
What was even more amazing was talking to people in the crowd (we were in a park next to the Causeway) who were from all over the world. I talked with Germans, Brits, Aussies, and others who made the trip to be present for the last launch. They understood the significance of the Shuttle. Too bad Barry didn’t
You sir are 100% correct. The Space Shuttle was a function of politics and not good science. Every pound of that damn machine represented useful payload that was not useful, i.e. dead weight lifted into orbit to return as dead weight and sometimes not to return at all except with the dead.
We can thank Lyndon Baines Johnson for this boondoggle. It was politics not science.
All those wasted pounds of the shuttle could have been put into good use as entry to high earth orbit.
A politically supine NASA sucks.
Stay classy loser.
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