Space Shuttle is close to launch ...

There won't be too many more Shuttle launches. 5,


I won't be sorry to see the shuttle scapped. It has been a monumental disaster. It was supposed to make space travel cheap and routine, but it just never did. It was always cheaper to send stuff up by Euro or Russian rockets, and even safer as it turned out. 14 astronauts dead from this flying bomb.

The US a few years back announced the orion and constellation program that would put men on the moon, and later Mars, it was a reversion back to the apollo/saturn launch vehicle and landing principle. So basically 30 years wasted.

Now the US is broke and the space program is almost finished up. Bugger. :mad: I was keen to see it all happen again. I was born in 1967. Apparently I saw Neil and Buzz walk on the moon but I don't remember it. I do remember some of the other 5 missions. I thought I'd see man walk on mars before the last of the 12 moon walkers died. That's impossible now, and it's unlikely anyone will even walk on the moon again before they are all dead.

Will I even see someone walk on mars before I'm dead?
Perhaps he or she will be Chinese?


See ya's.
 
I was born in 1967. Apparently I saw Neil and Buzz walk on the moon but I don't remember it. I do remember some of the other 5 missions..

I remember coming home at lunch time in grade one and watched it on TV...you do the maths -I've given away my age. :eek:
 
I remember coming home at lunch time in grade one and watched it on TV...you do the maths -I've given away my age. :eek:

I wasn't allowed to go to school that day. My folks made me stay home to watch it. About the best thing they ever did for me.
Not telling what grade I was in at the time :)

I agree TC :(
 
i think star wars is over for the US, maybe not CERN or the EU to a lesser extent though.

if there's anyone going into space, it will be China, India or Iran - just to blow smoke up someone's a*r*s*e.

unfortunatley - the US have a mindset with anything manufactured by the US that once they got it right - that's it, they're done, no room for improvement, that's as good as it's going to get, why bother, costs to much to change it etc.

and as anyone else on the planet knows, that's a dangerous mindset to have when playing in space.
 
i remember being woken in the middle of the night to watch the first shuttle land ... only feels like a few years ago, but it would be around 30yrs now.

apparently i was alive for the moon landing, but barely so don't recall any of the moon missions.
 
They are going back to Apollo Type rockets..........cheaper in real terms.

Most folk that have spent time piloting this thing will tell you its not a great design, and is similarly fragile as strapping a rocket to a butterfly.

ta
rolf
 
a rocket to a butterfly - what a wild ride for the butterfly!

"if a butterfly explodes over the rainforest - does that create a tidal wave in Aceh?"
 
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