Godspeed Atlantis

[Rick in PA]

Just wishing her a safe and happy journey.

I've watched the space shuttle program from start to finish. There were times I allowed myself to become blasé about it, but it was a thrilling program. There were times I shed a few tears, but many more times it uplifted my spirit. I'll miss our space shuttles...

 

[rshaw125]

Safe trip. But I feel sorry for NASA. They milked the shuttle program as long as they could.

 

[Al]

Originally Posted By: rshaw125
S But I feel sorry for NASA. They milked the shuttle program as long as they could.

They milked it way beyond what we could afford.
But anyway yes..safe trip.

 

[OilNerd]

Kennedy Space Center won't seem the same.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: OilNerd
Kennedy Space Center won't seem the same.


So true. I wanted to see one of the shuttles launch and even made a trip back there to see one go but it was delayed and I had to fly back.

I did see one land out in California. But I have been told that the launch is the ticket.

Bill

 

[PandaBear]

Space shuttle is indeed an inspiration when I was a kid, jump started my desire to be an engineer when I grew up. Hope we can eventually afford to do something similar as a human civilization again eventually.

 

[Trajan]

Maybe another Harry Broderick will step up.....

 

[mechtech2]

The space shuttle program was super expensive and inefficient.
Lots of PR involved to keep up public interest and thus funding is easier.
Most could have been done with rockets.

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: Al
Originally Posted By: rshaw125
S But I feel sorry for NASA. They milked the shuttle program as long as they could.

They milked it way beyond what we could afford.
But anyway yes..safe trip.



One of the heads, maybe even the head, of NASA wrote a book, and in it he said the space shuttle was a waste of money from day one. He said it was made for publicity, to glamorize space flight, and had nothing to do with advancing scientific research or national defense. He was removed from his position when he tried to get the program stopped (mid 70's). He said, for the most part, that there was no need to put humans in space. I can't remember his name or the name of the book.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Space shuttle is indeed an inspiration when I was a kid, jump started my desire to be an engineer when I grew up. Hope we can eventually afford to do something similar as a human civilization again eventually.



Agreed...just something we will miss. Always loved to watch them...

 

[PandaBear]

The concept of human space flight is useful or not aside, the fundamental design of a space shuttle that shape isn't quite right. They originally anticipate the shuttle to be easily reused without any expensive maintenance and the cost of sacrificing the multistage rockets to be higher than the maintenance between the shuttle flight, as well as the additional aerodynamic drag and weight in fuel cost.

If anything, going back to a single stick multistage rocket and separate the payload into a different rocket from the human would be a far cheaper choice. Human can't tolerate the G force that a payload can and the efficiency of the rocket has to be tuned down for the health and comfort of the astronauts.

We're on the path to that design until we ran out of money.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Having grown up with Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and the Shuttle it will be strange not to have American manned missions into space. Whether you think it was a waste or not, you can't argue with the success of the Shuttle program as a freight hauler into low earth orbit, one that also doubled as a science lab. It really made earth orbit space flight routine.

It will be interesting to see how/if the partnership with private and commercial entities works out. It's too bad that we didn't have it ready to go once the last Shuttle mission was done.

It will feel odd to have our astronauts depend on the Russia to give them a lift into space.

 

[Mr Nice]

Dang it, I didn't go see the shuttle launch due to the weather reports saying it would be canceled. But I've seen it launch seven times over the past 20 years so I don't feel bad I missed todays event.

Titusville and the surrounding areas of KSC will be a ghost town within a year with all the space related jobs being lost.

 

[Silk]

So we can shorten our runway at Auckland airport now? It was lengthened to accommodate an emergency shuttle landing.

 

[Mystic]

I do think that the USA needs a manned space program for near Earth orbit. I think it will be silly to have to pay somebody else to send our people into space. But the space program is not dead. There will be several unmanned missions into the solar system and various private companies are developing powerful rockets.

And in a way I am glad that the Space Shuttle program is history. It was very expensive and I think cheaper rockets can be used not just for unmanned missions but for manned missions. Remember, the Russians developed a Space Shuttle kind of vehicle and only flew one mission or so. They realized it was too expensive. And those simple rockets may be safer. Remember the 14 Space Shuttle personnel who did not make it home.

So I personally have very mixed emotions about the end of the Space Shuttle flights. My brother-in-law was involved in several of these Space Shuttle flights and also unmanned rocket missions.

 

[Shannow]

I'll repeat what I thought that I'd posted last night.

As a child, I looked at the shuttle programme with awe, had books, models, remember the 747 launchings etc. I was amazed at the abilities of mankind. I was amazed at the abilties of the pilots with that cartridge on my Atari.

Unfortunately, when I was doing my engineering degree, I started to realise that the "reusable" platform meant that you were jamming much, much more hardware into space, needing much much much more fuel and power to get it up there, over a system that only carried enough infrastructure to get the gear there.

Then you had to carry further extra weight, like ablative tiles that would last multiple missions etc.

It no longer made sense to be the sole service provider (would work IMO in smaller numbers WITH a traditional lifter doing most of the lifting).

Russian version (Buran) only carried out a single space mission via remote control before being shut down. (Guess they decided it's worth before having to build the stuff to keep people alive in it).

It's still a great achievement IMO