Discovery safely away... 11 days in space and then 2 more launches this year before the program is scrubbed and the fleet decommed.... I have never known a day in my life without an active space program.... and now my grandchildren will just know it as a footnote in their history books...
I've watched about a hundred launches on the tube, probably as many landings. I was present at the first & second landings at Edwards. Viewed both Challenger & Columbia trip and fall.
Verum audaces non gerunt indusia alba. - Ipsi dixit MCMLXXII
Again, another Ga. Tech grad behind the wheel on this one.
John
The North Avenue Trade School strikes again!
Originally Posted By: Steve C
I agree with your sentiments, Chris.
To scrub the manned space program is a crying shame!
Amen! As a kid I lived for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs - I was obsessed with them. I never thought I'd see the day when the U.S. ceded the initiative in manned space exploration to other nations. Really, really sad.
With enough coin, you can now book a commercial space flight on SS2.
Which is actually one of the options that the government is considering to keep the US in space until the Pres. remembers that he has to allocate money to NASA in order for them to be able to build a new space flight system....
I've watched many launches on TV.. and have never been lucky enough to see a landing... but living here in SoCal have heard more then once the twin sonic booms of re-entry!
The technology that came from the Space program has changed the way we live. The applications of the technology developed is responsible for so many things that we use in everyday life that came into existence simply because of the space program is mind boggling.The whole concept making things smaller and more powerful ie. batteries, computer chips,circuit boards,computers was largely driven by the space program. That was a beautiful launch.Picture perfect.
I have never known a day in my life without an active space program.... and now my grandchildren will just know it as a footnote in their history books...
An active space program is still with us (and, in fact, is just getting "warmed up") -- just not NASA's version of it. The footnote will be only NASA's shuttle program -- a worthy and memorable footnote, to be sure.
Quote:
I never thought I'd see the day when the U.S. ceded the initiative in manned space exploration to other nations. Really, really sad.
Nothing has been ceded; the only difference is that it is now largely in private hands (with some support from NASA) and not the government alone.
CaT
If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracle of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.
- Lyndon Johnson, on signing the Wilderness Act into law (1964)
I've watched many launches on TV.. and have never been lucky enough to see a landing... but living here in SoCal have heard more then once the twin sonic booms of re-entry!
Having previously lived in SoCal, I do remember hearing some of the sonic booms when the shuttles used to land regularly at Edwards AFB (we lived in Palmdale and/or Quartz Hill during that time period).
Also, on one of our visits back to California after we moved to Ohio, one of the shuttle program's top brass attended my mom's large church in Lancaster, and heard about our pending visit, and we were fortunate enough for that person to ask my mom if we would be interested in free VIP passes to attend the landing of one of the shuttles (I think it may have been Atlantis?) at Edwards.
Of course, we took her up on the offer, and aside from having to rise at dark-something-thirty in order to be be in Mojave by, what was it, 5:00 or 6:00 a.m.?, that was one of our special memories. We got to drive our car past all the line of incoming vehicles to a special parking area up front, then hang out with the other invited celebrities (including one TV celebrity) in a special room with food, drinks, etc., while waiting, and then got to go with those same people to a special seating area up front (the equivalent of watching a football game from the 50-yeard line down front), when the shuttle finally was approaching for its landing. We all heard the sonic boom, of course; but watching it land in person was quite special.
Another time, my step-sister, who also worked for the space shuttle program's maintenance division at the time, got us into the shuttle hangar in Palmdale (it was Atlantis again), and we got to walk along the temporary walkway/railing set up all around the shuttle in order to do routine maintenance on it. While they didn't let us inside the shuttle (darn!), we could look in the main entry door and see the inside of it from just a yard or two away. We also got to see a close-up look at the underbelly of that shuttle during the same visit, including the heat shields (my step-sister showed us and let us hold one of the extra heat shield pieces, while explaining how they were built, what they were built of, and how unimaginably delicate they are -- it's nothing short of amazing that they can even take the rigors of reentry, but somehow they do). Also, seeing the rear engines up close and personal is breathtaking. The whole shuttle is huge, and it always struck me as amazing that something like that can even fly (but of course, it can).
CaT
PS - Wagga - Loved the documentary video above on the life of Discovery. Thanks for posting it.
If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracle of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.
- Lyndon Johnson, on signing the Wilderness Act into law (1964)
"And while it was seen by hundreds of millions of people as plasma screen close ups full of thunderous noise and flames, the last flight of Shuttle Discovery, was also seen, by chance, from the air, by passengers on a United Airlines flight out of Orlando Florida, which just happened to be abeam of the Kennedy Space Center."
Verum audaces non gerunt indusia alba. - Ipsi dixit MCMLXXII
I got to step outside my office and watch the launch live from Orlando. One of the few advantages to living in Florida. On a sad note I also watched the Challenger launch from Orlando on that fateful day and knew right away what happened. Kent
Is this the rocket launch that news reports are saying crashed into the Atlantic?
Last edited by Steve C; 03/04/1108:56 AM. Reason: added link
If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracle of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.
- Lyndon Johnson, on signing the Wilderness Act into law (1964)