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I feel really stupid now:

The replacement crew launched from Baikonur on June 6. They succeeded in docking to the station the following day. The men inhabited the station for 24 days, undocked on June 29 and headed for home. Here.

Yes, Skylab! It was the first manned space station, and it was american!

Incorrectamundo! The first manned space station was Soviet.

Salyut 1 (1971)

Skylab (1973)

I agree with the sentiment of your post though. I don't see a 2011 replacement telescope going up for some time.

I said it before and I'll say it again, things have gone to crud since Daniel Goldin left/was removed from the post of Director of NASA.

While we wait for the American program to recover, I'll be off watching what China is up to.

Let the flame war commence!

Yes, Skylab! It was the first manned space station, and it was american!

Incorrectamundo! The first manned space station was Soviet.

Salyut 1 (1971)

Skylab (1973)

I agree with the sentiment of your post though. I don't see a 2011 replacement telescope going up for some time.

I said it before and I'll say it again, things have gone to crud since Daniel Goldin left/was removed from the post of Director of NASA.

While we wait for the American program to recover, I'll be off watching what China is up to.

Let the flame war commence!

the first shuttle to go into space was the Columbia (R.I.P.) and she has been in active operation for the past 22 years.. in fact she was older than many /.ers.

lets face it folks, Columbia and her sisters were NEVER supposed to be in operation for this long.. iirc AIRLINES aren't allowed to fly planes which are more than 25 yrs old (i may be wrong on this one).. and the shuttle goes through MUCH more stress in reentry than your regular airliner.

the shuttles use outmoded technology and are designed for missions that are in many ways different from what they have to do now. should seven lives be risked just to get some satellites into space? or to get some supplies to the ISS? i would say the answer is no.. the US needs to get its priorities straight. start using rockets to get hardware into space, and then use the jettisoned hardware as part of the ISS, use a space equivalent of a delivery truck (pilot, copilot, navigator/arm controller ONLY, and lots of cargo space) for the kind of mission that absolutely HAS to have a human to handle the cargo and use a "space RV" which is what the shuttle was, to conduct some of the missions the shuttle did.. but i believe that once the ISS *REALLY* gets going a lot of those experiments that they were doing on the shuttle could be done just as easily on the ISS labs, with just the experiment components being brought to them via the "delivery truck" or by rocket.

lets face it folks, the shuttle as we know it is not the right tool for the job. so how about we put them out to pasture, and use the lessons they taught us to build a proper spacefleet?

oh i remember why now.. PORK..

ah well... forget it then

Suchetha

There have been at least 2 fatal accidents that I can think of with Soyuz: one in April 1967 (shortly after the Apollo fire) and one in the 1970's.

There have been at least 2 fatal accidents that I can think of with Soyuz: one in April 1967 (shortly after the Apollo fire) and one in the 1970's.

read all about it here

Here is some useless information about the Voyager spacecraft...

From the article:" Voyager 1 was launched on Sept. 5, 1977 and completed flyby exploration of both Jupiter and Saturn. The spacecraft now is rising above the ecliptic plane -- the plane in which most of the planets orbit the sun -- at an angle of about 35 degrees at a rate of about 520 million kilometers (about 320 million miles) a year.

Voyager 2 was launched on Aug. 20, 1977 and also completed visits to Jupiter and Saturn and then went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, completing the reconnaissance of the giant outer planets. The spacecraft is now diving below the ecliptic plane at an angle of about 48 degrees and a rate of about 470 million kilometers (about 290 million miles) a year.

So Voyager 1 is travelling at 320,000,000 miles per year. That is about 3090 m/s or 0.0103C. Not too shabby! Voyager 2 is at 290,000,000 miles per year or 2800 m/s or 0.0093C.

I wonder what the fastest man made object is? Hmmm let's see, this page says that the Ulysses probe was the fastest at 15 km/sec. That's 15,000 m/s or 0.05C! Then this page claims the Pioneer 10 was the fastest at 51,810 km/hour. That's 14,391.67 m/s or 0.04797C. So it looks like Ulysses wins. If you can find anything else to add to the list, please do!

Article II of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 expressly forbids property clains to outer space, including the moon. In any case, the russians were first to get a flag there -- they crashed several of the Luna probes onto the moon, first in '59 and later in '65. At least one of these was filled with lots of little Soviet flags which were intended to spill out on impact. The Soviets also made several soft landings, and were first to land a lunar rover. The Luna Mission Profile is available online.

Tony.