It was not just another ho-hum shuttle launch as it was in the US, for the most part.
Hiya Bee... let me tell you, no matter what anyone else says.. there never has been and never will be anything ho-hum about a shuttle launch. Sadly I know that there are many who take this technology for granted and don't see anything special about it. Those are the ignorant ones who don't care to look beyond the fact that the shuttle looks like an airplane. If we can fly an airplane why shouldn't we be able to fly a shuttle? Please know that many, many of us mourned with Israel when Ilan Ramon went down with his shipmates on Columbia .
Originally Posted By: Rod
Art stated simply that in the year 1989 the U.S.no longer had the scientists and technological capacity to launch a capsule with a rocket. I took his educated opinion as truth.Still hard to fathom but I believed him.Remember this was in 1989 and maybe things have changed.
Rod~ Ok.. I know in 1989 when I first started hearing about the "next generation" systems that NASA was looking at developing for the space program that they were NOT looking at the rocket/capsule type of system. They were looking at bigger, "better" shuttle/glider/plane type systems. (In December of 1989 I went to an "astronaut" training program at Space Camp and they did a lecture series on the next generation... fascinating!)I'm sure they haven't just pulled it out of their tushes as a last minute idea... but it hasn't been until the last 4 or 5 years that I've really started hearing a lot about an actual operational (and feasible) version of a rocket/capsule system to take us back to flight after the Shuttles get decommissioned....
