30 minutes to go catch it here
[URL]http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/135_splash/index.html[/URL]
RIP
You served your country well
They only show shots from the control room I'm sad.
I wanna go to space.
Oh, cockpit cam!
And it's all come to an end...
Atlantis you did well. Farewell, buddy.
[editline]21st July 2011[/editline]
IR camera.
Holy fuck. I wonder how long it takes to dissipate all of that heat.
[QUOTE=sltungle;31245497]And it's all come to an end...
Atlantis you did well. Farewell, buddy.
[editline]21st July 2011[/editline]
IR camera.
Holy fuck. I wonder how long it takes to dissipate all of that heat.[/QUOTE]
about 45 minutes
[QUOTE=Cortana;31245585]I just entered this thread. 6 minutes late =([/QUOTE]
You can still rewind the stream with that progress bar at the bottom
It's a sad day when a nation unifying program like the space program has taken a backseat to things like fighting third world militias and bailing out companies that can't handle finances. All the while political talking heads duke it out in Washington because some assholes refuse to pay more in taxes.
Fuck everything about this.
[Rewound to landing]
Wow, this announcer is a real downer :sad:
Final Landing, Last time Atlantis will ever be in space, etc.
Dammit I'm late again.
I think it'd be kind of funny (but it'd be depressing later on) if after it had cooled down they simply towed it off to the end of the landing strip and pushed it into a MASSIVE wood-chipper like machine ('cept it'd be a metal and ceramic chipper).
Aww, wish I was here earlier for Live steam. Kinda sad :(
There are a number of people in NASA who are hopeful that now they've got rid of the shuttle program they can work on something better.
The shuttle was good, but limited. I think we may have been back to the moon by now if NASA wasn't throwing lots of money at launching a low-orbit cargo plane all the time for the past 30 years.
I'm optimistic for the future of spaceflight.
[QUOTE=slinkman;31245738]It's a sad day when a nation unifying program like the space program has taken a backseat to things like fighting third world militias and bailing out companies that can't handle finances. All the while political talking heads duke it out in Washington because some assholes refuse to pay more in taxes.
Fuck everything about this.[/QUOTE]
As sad as it is, the shuttle had to go. It's an amazing technology but it's expensive, limited and relatively unsafe. We just have to hope NASA is allowed the funding to develop another manned spacecraft, or this may just mark the beginning of manned space flight becoming dominated by the private industry.
What really doomed the shuttle was small cutbacks throughout its service. It was only supposed to serve for 10 years and build the ISS (or space station freedom as it was known in the 80's, which was scrapped and a cut back version becoming the plans for the ISS) Lack of funding to develop replacement vehicles and the ISS going way over budget and schedule meant the shuttle's lifespan became 3 times what it was originally supposed to be.
Without motivation like the cold war space race, all NASA projects are doomed to either be scrapped entirely, after spending billions on development, or constant cuts stopping the project from performing its original tasks and just becoming expensive and rather useless. (see: ISS)
Both the shuttle and the ISS are incredible but the last two decades have been spent shuttling bits of the ISS up into orbit over 26 shuttle flights, (something the Saturn V could have done in 3), and at the end of it we've got a pretty awesome space station but it's not as awesome as it should have been, and it's cost compared to the amount of useful science we get out of it, since it is a science lab, is pretty ridiculous.
I'm not saying the shuttle or the ISS are mistakes, they're two of the most amazing technological feats every realised, with the ISS uniting dozens of nations, especially Russia and the US, but I think their era should come to a close and we should move on. We need to break away from LEO again. Maybe under corporate banners and not national flags, where there's no congress to scrap stuff after years of development and money.
[QUOTE=sltungle;31245797]I think it'd be kind of funny (but it'd be depressing later on) if after it had cooled down they simply towed it off to the end of the landing strip and pushed it into a MASSIVE wood-chipper like machine ('cept it'd be a metal and ceramic chipper).[/QUOTE]
[video=youtube;tPDLX0koXFs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPDLX0koXFs&feature=relmfu[/video]
With one of these.
I expected it to sink in the ocean. :tinfoil:
I still can't see why people think no shuttle=no space. Well, I can see why, but I can't see any logical reasoning.
I remain positive and optimistic about the future of space exploration myself, I think in the next 100-200 years we would have put a man on Mars, have colonies on the moon, perhaps even mining complexes in the upper atmosphere of some of the gas giants and maybe, just maybe a manned interstellar mission shortly after.
NASA has just started the Constellation program, onwards and upwards.
[QUOTE=Oppenheimer;31258588]NASA has just started the Constellation program, onwards and upwards.[/QUOTE]
What, they got the green light for that? Awesome! :dance:
[QUOTE=slinkman;31245738]It's a sad day when a nation unifying program like the space program has taken a backseat to things like fighting third world militias and bailing out companies that can't handle finances. All the while political talking heads duke it out in Washington because some assholes refuse to pay more in taxes.
Fuck everything about this.[/QUOTE]
In a perfect world, scientific discovery and advancement would be the highest priority of all of mankind.
I wish we lived in that perfect world. [img]http://sae.tweek.us/static/images/emoticons/emot-smith.gif[/img]
[QUOTE=Oppenheimer;31258588]NASA has just started the Constellation program, onwards and upwards.[/QUOTE]
Constellation was cancelled nearly a year ago.
Damn, I missed it. I need to visit GD more often.
[QUOTE=Zombii;31261821]Constellation was cancelled nearly a year ago.[/QUOTE]
Oh. God damn it NASA.
[editline]ah[/editline]
Turns out they're designing a new heavy-lift launch vehicle by 2015.
[QUOTE=Oppenheimer;31267732]Oh. God damn it [b]Obama[/b].
[editline]ah[/editline]
Turns out they're designing a new heavy-lift launch vehicle by 2015.[/QUOTE]
fixed
he likes hunting...
It brought a tear to my eyes as Atlantis landed, and yesterday I decided to make a track to honour the great shuttle program.
I bring to you, A Tribute.
[media]http://soundcloud.com/dicktrace/def[/media]
May the death of the shuttles bring forth a stronger, faster, more efficent spacefaring vehicle.
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