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ISS Mission STS-100-6A Canadarm2
mitd writes: "ISS Mission STS-100-6A will leave be leaving Thursday carrying the new Canadarm2 and Chris Hadfield who will become the first Canadian to walk in space. Chris gave an interview on CBC radio (MP3) . He talks about the new features of the Canadarm2 including its ability to walk around the ISS and do very delicate work that previously only astronauts could do." And MP3 interviews are a nice idea, too, versus streaming.
I'm sorry buddy, but that's just crap. If we canadians felt like building some great nationilstic ventures, we would, cost doesn't even venture into it. How many nations of 30 million people have G7 status eh? Us and Australia that's who - and there are scads of countries with way more people who can't claim that. We have definitely got the money to burn on meaningless nationalism if we wanted. The reason we don't do it is two-fold: firstly canadians just don't have any nationalist sentiments, or very little. Hell most of us don't even know what it is we identify with as a country. Secondly the business and political culture of our country is so tight-assed and conservative that they refuse to invest in anything canadian for fear that it will flop, despite the overwhelming evidence that as such a small nation we have an insane overabundance of intelligent, talented and creative people.
"I would like to keep it that way. Armstrong's lunar vacation didn't do anything for the human race (after all, the Russians had already had a successful moon landing with the Luna-9 well ahead of his arrival)"
Yes, the russians did put plenty of unmanned landers on the moon - the key word here being 'unmanned'. NASA also sent lots of unmanned orbiters and landers on the moon before Armstrong and company went. There is a huge difference in sending a robot out into space and sending people - the requirements for sending human life into the emptiness of space is much much more demanding.
I think trying to measure achievements of this kind in terms of dollars & cents returns or immediate gratification to the masses is a very small-minded and limited way to look, and typical of the canadian business culture I mentioned above. The achievements of NASA in the last half century are certainly some of the most important feats humanity has ever accomplished. Putting human beings not only outside of the thin tiny little biosphere in which we evolved, but fully onto another celestial body ranks up there with the discovery of fire and the wheel as some of the most significant events in our evolution. I don't know if you've ever been to see any of the NASA stuff at Cape Canaveral or not - but I definitely have the sense that it is a place that will rank up their with the pyramids of Giza or the Great Wall of China thousands of years from now as one of the most important human landmarks. Don't belittle the great achievements of the species with petty economical arguments - that is an insult not only to the people who achieved true lasting greatness but an insult to humanity in general.
"The nordic nations, the Netherlands and Finland, in particular, have the best human rights and social development records on earth and they've never engaged in the kind of nationalistic nonsense from which the space race has proceeded (the Swedes have a space program, mind you). Canada (and the United States) should aspire to such progressiveness."
And for your information, all the countries you mentioned DO participate in the European Space Agency, which is actively involved in building large portions of the International Space Station, as well as numerous other projects. Taken from slide 2 of ESA's website presentation ( http://www.esa.int/presentation/ ):
There are a thousand forms of subversion, but few can equal the convenience and immediacy of a cream pie -Noel Godin
2.) This is not the first time a non-American has flown aboard the shuttle. See above point.
3.) This is not the first time a non-American or non-Soviet/Russian has performed a spacewalk. I'm not sure about earlier examples, but Thomas Reiter (German/ESA) performed a spacewalk outside of Mir in late 1995.
3.) Canada is not the only country to hitch a ride on the shuttle. Cosmonauts have flown aboard the shuttle (Sergei Krikalev, 1994), ESA representatives (Ulf Merbold, 1983), and even Mexico has hitched a ride (Neri Vela, 1985).
4.) Canada is #3 as far as putting people into space (behind Russia/CIS and the USA, obviously). All this means is that their total of 8 astronauts edges out Japan's 5. France and Germany seem to be tied for fifth with 4 each (the ESA has 11 total). To put this into perspective, as of 31 October 2000, there have been 397 people in orbit.
So yes, this is the first time that there'll be a spacesuit with a Canadian flag on the shoulder, and yes, this will install the latest and greatest Canadarm (complete with Slinky-like motion), but that's where the historical signifigance ends. I'm not trying to downplay the moment for the Canadians, I'm just trying to set the record straight. Some of the posts here seem to suggest that Canada will beat out China as the third space-faring nation.