Final launch of the Space Shuttle program.... in 15 minutes.

[Schlyder]

The Space Shuttle Atlantis will be launching in 15 minutes.
Watch some history.

It is a shame there is not anything ready to replace it yet.

[Auzzie-Phoenix]

Weren't we supposed to have flying cars that could take us to other planets by now?

[Tituscrow]

Just hope it's up and down in one piece. Looking a tad rickety these days...

Still shudder thinking back to the live footage of the previous disasters.

Anyone know where it plans to end up once retired?

[Big_Daddy]

My aunt's there for the launch. I wish I could see it, too.

[Relic]

Just watched it online with my kids. Awesome, but a real bummer that it's the last one

[Smokin' Toaster]

If I were scheduled for some time on the International Space Station, I wouldn't look forward to riding up and back in a Soyuz. The US has had it's share of disasters, but I'd still bet my behind on a space shuttle over a Soyuz.

[Relic]

Originally Posted by Smokin' Toaster

If I were scheduled for some time on the International Space Station, I wouldn't look forward to riding up and back in a Soyuz. The US has had it's share of disasters, but I'd still bet my behind on a space shuttle over a Soyuz.

Isn't the Soyuz the one platform that has launched more than any other on the planet?

[jaywa]

A bit sad no question... and definitely symbolic of how the United States has lost its mojo in so many different ways.

I would like to think we still have the gumption, leadership and common vision as a nation to pull off another initiative like putting a man on the moon (albeit in a different vein, be it energy independence or whatever)... but I think events of the past decade have made it very clear that's just not in our collective DNA anymore. We've become far too fragmented, too lazy and too self-absorbed to put together anything "for the common good" on anywhere close to that scale anymore. As a person who was just a toddler when the first American stepped on the moon, today strikes me very much as the end of an era. It's too bad.

[Smokin' Toaster]

If I were scheduled for some time on the International Space Station, I wouldn't look forward to riding up and back in a Soyuz. The US has had it's share of disasters, but I'd still bet my behind on a space shuttle over a Soyuz.

[Funky Ghost]

Kinda neat to follow the flight on Google Earth. It links from Nasa's web page.

[Relic]

Originally Posted by Funky Ghost

Kinda neat to follow the flight on Google Earth. It links from Nasa's web page.

I must be blind..I cant find that link. Can you paste the link here pretty please?

edit - nevermind, I got it.

[stratovani]

As the Shuttle was launching all I could think of was the line in Rush's Hemispheres,

My 'Rocinante' sailed by night
On her final flight
To the heart of Cygnus' fearsome force
We set our course
Spiralled through that timeless space
To this immortal place

[Jazz Ad]

Originally Posted by Smokin' Toaster

If I were scheduled for some time on the International Space Station, I wouldn't look forward to riding up and back in a Soyuz. The US has had it's share of disasters, but I'd still bet my behind on a space shuttle over a Soyuz.

And you'd be wrong. Soyuz is by far the most reliable space vessel ever built. Less than 1 % of fatalities, while the Shuttle had over 4 %.

[Gard]

So many memories from my life are linked to the Space Shuttle and its linked programs.

I stayed home from school (senior in HS) to watch the first launch.

I tinted the windows at the Michoud Assembly Facility just outside of New Orleans, where the external tanks were built, and was fortunate enough to be let in to the assembly floor to see them being built. Impressive.

I moved to Orlando soon after that, and saw countless launches in person. The most memorable, and for a very sad reason, was the Challenger launch. I was standing on the banks of the Indian River...my heart broke into a thousand little pieces in that instant. I couldn't speak, or move, for what seemed an eternity.

A few years later, during a routine window tinting job at NASA's administration building, due to a fortuitous rescheduling, I stood on the lawn in front of the building with countless NASA employees and staff to watch the first launch after Challenger.

Soon after that, back at KSC for another window tinting job, this time on a small little shack, that just happened to be right next to the crawl way, due again to rescheduling, I witnessed up close and personal the orbiter on the crawler...I walked up to it and put my hand on the crawler...possibly one of the single most amazing sights and experiences of my life - a structure the size of an office building going by me at 3 mph, on the way to orbit at 17,000 mph....

I remember being regularly awoken by the boomboom of the shuttle coming in for a landing at KSC...and lying in bed waiting to hear it one March morning, and NOT hearing it...

The fact that our government found the money to throw away by giving it to companies that can't manage to run themselves in a profitable, sensible way, but can't find it to update/upgrade the shuttle fleet or find a replacement for it, is something that I have zero respect for. It is sad beyond words...we now must rely upon the Russian space agency to catch a ride to the facility that we conceived of and built in orbit? How idiotic is this?

[Funky Ghost]

Originally Posted by Relic

I must be blind..I cant find that link. Can you paste the link here pretty please?

edit - nevermind, I got it.

Sorry 'bout that, I had an "emergency" here at work I had to hash out. Another site is here.

[jmattbassplaya]

Originally Posted by Gard

How idiotic is this?

And ironic given the space race was mostly between the United States and the USSR.

[A-Step-Towards]

Why are they not wanting to spend money on it? trying to fund another war?

This is sad.

[L-A]

Originally Posted by A-Step-Towards

Why are they not wanting to spend money on it? trying to fund another war?

This is sad.

Yes, because you don't do things you can't afford.

Right?

[Funky Ghost]

With the emergence of private companies vying for a foot hold in the space programs it seems likely that the government will let them do the R&D ( the most expensive part of any tech program ) and simply rent a ride or outright buy the company when it's complete. I'm certain black programs are alive and well in the space arena.

[jaywa]

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

And ironic given the space race was mostly between the United States and the USSR.

My thoughts exactly.