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Space Shuttle Atlantis Launches On Final Flight
Space Shuttle Atlantis has just launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. STS-135 marks the final flight for the shuttle program, 30 years after Columbia touched the sky during STS-1. The mission summary (PDF) outlines STS-135's crew and event timeline. NASA's launch blog has been following the countdown all morning, and our own CmdrTaco has been tweeting live from on-site. NASA TV is also being streamed live. Meteorological reports for the launch looked doubtful at first, but a gap in the bad weather at just the right time allowed everything to proceed as planned. Atlantis successfully reached its preliminary orbit in what a NASA official called a "flawless" launch.
So goes America's dominance in space.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
a new one will take some time to get up and going.
So goes America's dominance in space.
Well the American government's dominance(*), there is still the American commercial spaceflight industry. Let's hope the government does not over-regulate or otherwise screw up this emerging industry.
(*) Dominance may be overstating things. The Russians have done a lot of important work, much of it complementary to America's work and experience.
I just watched the launch via the live feed. 30 years of good work. Now...what's next? Here's hoping NASA will have the budget to get its next vehicle up and running.
Noticed there was a long delay, but I have no speakers at work, so couldn't hear an explanation.
TIA.
NASA'll come up with a new vehicle. The best part is when that day comes you'll be able to catch that first launch!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
SpaceX should have it's Dragon module with a crew within 3 years hopefully. They've already fired the thing in to space and retrieved it. It's just a matter of finishing off the crew support and contingency systems.
Its hard to believe that they have mothballed such a big part of my childhood's imagination.
Growing up with James Bond movies like Moon Raker and X-Men comics using the iconic imagery of the Space Shuttles means they will forever be my idea of futuristic space travel.
It makes it harder to let go without a new, better, faster, inspiring vehicle to latch on to. I mean the Soyuz is rock solid, but it doesn't scream "next gen space travel...
I went to battle M.C. Escher, but drew a blank.
I've watched two shuttle launches live:
The very first, Columbia, when I was a child at a friend's house.
The very last, today's launch.
All the others I've only seen after the fact. I did watch a re-entry live in person once from a Cessna 172 at about 11,000 feet over the north of Houston at night. It left a plasma trail across the sky from horizon to horizon. It was funny to think when we got back to Houston Gulf airport (formerly called Spaceland, hence its identifier KSPX, sadly now demolished and covered in identikit McMansions) only 40 or so miles away, the shuttle crew had already landed in Florida, disembarked, and were probably halfway though their first cup of coffee.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
When Columbia launched, according to my mother, I watched 8 hours of the broadcast. All the way from the astronauts' breakfast to the press conference past the launch. I didn't move.
I guess even at that age we humans are capable of grasping the awesome and extraordinary quality of certain events.
I don't know why I'm posting, except perhaps that through my whole life I have felt a deep attachment to space exploration, science and technological achievement (all of which I've always considered to coincide with humanitarianism, if not cause). The space shuttle has been the icon, the embodiment of that attachment and love.
Lief Ericson made it to america first, but managed to stay only for a short while. It would be 500 more years before explorers returned from Europe (and not in the best form, it should be said).
I know we from Earth will return, and I hope and believe it will not be 500 more years.
Just out of curiosity, is NASA hanging onto any of the shuttles just in case? Back when DIRECT was promoting an STS-based heavy launcher, they mentioned that there were enough fuel tanks and SRBs to do quite a number of flights - more than the shuttle has done. Could they just park the thing in a hangar somewhere and dust it off if the need arose?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Hopefully it will be followed by other wasteful major works--preferably of the kind that are entirely worthless, as opposed to NASA. I'm thinking of these as a start:
* The Department of Paranoia and Machinegunning Citizens
* The Department(s) of Not Really Authorized by the Constitution
* Operation Desert Deficit
* Operation Enduring Body Count
* "Bailing out" the housing market distortion paying meaningless imaginary debt with the fruits of real labor
* The War on Body Orifices
One can only hope...
A post 20 minutes before the launch might have been nice.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Goddamn you gotta hand it to the war pigs !! If anything fuels elite biz it's a fucking goddamn commie*arab) killing war !!
Cheney said it best: FUCK WITH ME and I'll shoot you in your goddamn face, punk !! And you'll thank me for it !!
wow, what did God do to you?
I grew up with the shuttles and I am just old enough to remember the first launch. I want to say something really profound, but I just find myself really sad and numb feeling and very disappointed that we do not already have a better replacement ready to fly.
What has happened to us? If feels like despite the tremendous technological breakthroughs that have occurred since the first shuttle flight we have actually gone backwards some how.
Nevermore.
Heh. It would be hilarious if athletes blamed God.
But, no, I don't give a shit when athletes give credit to God...but...they are not scientists and engineers. I hold them to a higher standard. ;)
I'd take it more as the white room crew making a patriotic statement than a religious reference. In many of the employees, there is a pretty significant sense of national service, both on the part of the government and contractor employees. I would say the majority of employees (at least the ones I worked with, who were mainly engineers) were primarily motivated by things other than a paycheck, which in most cases was smaller than a similar private sector position.
One interesting thing about the "God" reference - I'm not particularly religious, but to some it was not all about the science and engineering when there are people onboard. I've worked manned and unmanned launches. When there are people you actually know and work with daily onboard, it's got a whole different sense about it - and it would cause religious feelings to well up in some people who ordinarily were fairly agnostic.
Worst...sig...ever!
1. We need an agency to to scientific research and develop new technologies. It was a mistake for NASA to get ensnarled in running daily operations of getting payloads into orbit.
2. Congress should just provide the goal and the budget, not specify the means of accomplishing the goal. (no gerrymandering the pork across districts to buy votes) This should go for the military, too.
3. The shuttle program is a camel and a fiscal failure. But it was what we had.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Well America, it's up to India, China and Russia now. Leave the whole "space" and "discovery" and "dreams for the future" business to the up-and-comers. They'll take over the space exploration for you so you don't need to send people up or build space telescopes anymore. You've got more pressing, practical things to worry about! Terrorism, wars, economic stuff, that sort of thing. Good run guys!
I have to wonder... If North Korea suddenly announced that they had A) manned launch capability and B) plans to do a moon run in ten years, would America still decide that manned space travel was done and over with?
I'll be honest, we're throwing science against the wall to see what sticks. -Cave Johnson
I watched the STS-135 launch with my teenaged daughter a few minutes ago. I was only a few years older than she when I watched the STS-1 launch with a couple of my friends who stayed over my house for the even. We still had the Apollo era habit of watching all the televised launches.
It really did feel like a new beginning, the dawn of the era of (mostly) reusable spacecraft, just like in science fiction. The Shuttle may have turned out to be an abortive step toward the future, but it also accomplished a great deal and has important lessons for us, if we only have the will to learn them.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Why do you say a blatant politically motivated lie "fits well"? Khrushchev made that up as part of his campaign to enforce state atheism; Gagarin and his family were Russian Orthodox. Many of the people involved in space exploration have been deeply religious; many have felt that their experience has deepened their appreciation for God's creation and that their relation to the Creator was a driving force in their quest for scientific discovery.
Two quotations from Werner von Braun, a Lutheran without whom we probably never would have put a man on the moon:
For more about Von Braun's faith see here.
One of the main people responsible for the Shuttle program was Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA administrator for 9 years, who was a faithful Mormon.
Atheists who fancy themselves armchair rocket scientists may not like it, but the space program has not only always been wrapped up in this "sentimental nonsense" - it would never have been possible without it. The men who had the vision to lead America to space were men of faith. In today's world, where militant and brash atheism is on the increase and where "spirituality" and saying "Lord, Lord" (cf Matt 7:21) have displaced real devotion and discipleship among many who claim to be religious, this nation no longer has the vision and the willpower to continue to blaze that trail.
It had something to do with the fact there is no backup shuttle and space needed if an evacuation was necessary.
I hope the Russians can keep the ISS up on their own. As soon as Atlantis pulls away from it to return to Earth, the betting pool opens.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Logic: it's not just for breakfast anymore.
I'll be honest, we're throwing science against the wall to see what sticks. -Cave Johnson
I remember vividly the day we received the news in our elementary school via public address that the Challenger launch had a terrible ending. But there's been so much good stuff besides the relatively few (but so terrible) tragedies.
I decided to watch today's launch here at work. A co-worker slid over and asked, "Where are they going? The moon?" No joke. Made me kind of depressed that some people are so completely and blissfully ignorant of our space program.
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
They're not doing anything that requires mission specialists, so they decided to send more supplies instead.
probably partially so they're not too crowded at the ISS if they have to hole up there until the Russians can ferry them back down.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and FSM bless us all
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
Part of what Dennis Overbye wrote for the New York Times:
I no longer expect to see boot prints on Mars during my lifetime, nor do I expect that whoever eventually makes those boot prints will be drawing a paycheck from NASA, or even speaking English.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
Not when you have a couple of lads changing the tiles by hand. It's not like a major operation. It's a bad design from start and you can blame the Air Force for that. The wings were their clever idea to achieve cross-range.
Also they did claim it was going to be cheap. I remember all the talk when I was a little lad and then Challenger happened.
It was time to end it. Over 30 years the shuttle has done some great things, but NASA has failed to fix what was broken with the STS and failed to upgrade it properly. Privatization is the best thing we can do for space; government involvement has gotten to big, bloated, and stupid for real innovation.
Case and point- Mission Anomalies for STS-1- how many of these got properly fixed by the end of the program? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-1#Mission_anomalies
There's a reason why American Science is going down the drains.
If the word God bothers you so much, I'd be happy to relieve you of any federal reserve notes bearing the phrase "In God We Trust".
I'm an atheist, and I hope I never demonstrate as much religious fervor as you just did.
You're exactly right, the idea was to be reusable to bring the costs of spaceflight down.
There is no -1 disagree
your analogy is broken dude. :: my salary : cost of new car
GDP : space shuttle program
I seriously doubt I would even for a instant consider hitchhiking to work for three years if a new car was going to cost me $160 (~0.25% of GDP). Shit, for that, I could justify buying a minibike to play around with that I only use on nice weekends in the summer.
Instead, I'm using 90% of my salary to pay off my credit card interest, pay for health insurance ( not actual health care...) and buy M80's to blow up the neighbors with.
Man, am I a jackass...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
That's mostly because the annoying, intolerant atheists are obviously the only ones you hear. I'm an atheist, and I'm fine with people praying, thanking their God/gods, and other public demonstrations of their faith. Everybody has the right to decide their own beliefs, and to talk about their own beliefs. I think they're wrong, they think I'm wrong, and that's OK. As long as we don't force beliefs on each other, we can get along.
A lot of atheists are decent people that you probably don't even realize are atheists, because they're not the lunatic fringe that gets all shouty and frantic because somebody is believing in God in their presence.
It takes more faith to believe that God doesn't exist than it does to believe it. In the end you die and either nothing happens or you go to hell. The aftermath is irreversible
Uh, no. The Invisible Pink Unicorn sends all atheists to Invisible Pink Unicorn Heaven where they get free ponies and cake, while those who believe in some kind of god are sent to their religion's version of Hell.
Pascal's Wager was a silly idea when he first proposed it, I'm amazed that anyone would still try to use it centuries later.
There's a serious problem with Pascal's Wager (which you are positing the essentials of here). It assumes that you're worshiping the right God(s). The problem is not binary. There are a vast and continuously morphing number of sects, religions, cults, and belief systems; very many of which assume that if you don't believe what they do you will go to something more or less like Hell. It's not enough, according to most major and a many minor religions, to believe in God(s) you have to believe in the right one(s) and follow the right (often ambiguous) moral code. You could be a very devote Muslim and still be wrong according to many Christians, or vice versa. Break down further into Baptist vs. Catholic, Sunni vs Shiite, blah, blah, blah, and the chances that even if you chose to believe in God(s) you pick the right one and the right way to worship Him (/Her/Them) aren't that good. It's like the lottery, you can't win if you don't play, but playing hardly makes you a winner.
Personally I'm not an Atheist (though I'm also not a Christian by any stretch), but not becasue I worry that my all caring and all merciful Gods might toss into a Lake of Fire for all eternity (Apparently Gods get to have completely different definitions of "good", "caring", and "merciful").
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
space program has not only always been wrapped up in this "sentimental nonsense" - it would never have been possible without it.
No space program without religion? The religious may not like it, but intellectual progress and morality does not require god. Because some who worked on the space program claimed to believe in a magical being does not mean the space program is not possible without magical beings.
Does nobody here see the retirement of the shuttle as a good thing? I for one love where NASA is going, and with the shuttle gone we are closer to seeing the Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle headed for deep space.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Note that in Pink Unicorn hell everybody gets fruitcake instead of normal cake, so it really is not that bad no matter what you do.
It's also interesting how many of those people in your list would have been burned at the stake/ostracized had they said else wise.
It's kinda funny how much one coward will post to hold up his end of an empty argument. I count, what, 4 that are probably all you?
That is depressing.
Humanitarianism is my bag. I love people, even with all our ignorance and hypocrisy I truly believe (based on evidence) 99% of people are 99% heart. Even the 'dumbest' people I've spoken with never fail to enlighten me of my own ignorances and hypocries - and thus I grow!
People are good. Homo sapiens are good. Cultures....
Despite my optimism, however, lately I'm becoming convinced that we must evolve (like literally change genetically or mentally or physically) before we can persist in space, indefinitely independent of mother earth. I'm almost convinced this evolution must be to the degree of speciation...but I dare not tread on that ground...or dare I?
I'm going to wax poetic and philosophical here, forgive me. These are my thoughts - maybe they belong in my journal, but here they are.
Humanity is turning it's focus inward. This is not necessarily bad. I hope, and do believe ( weakly I must admit) that this is a global 'soul searching' time - but I must accept the possibility that we might instead be 'navel gazing' ourselves away.
Africa, 50,000 years ago. Some people moving north-east or north-west maybe noticed it was getting colder, but it was worth it to get away. Away from whatever it was they left - probably the same thing we always leave, bad environments both natural and man-made. Some moved only so far and then stayed where they were, they didn't want it to get colder.
Some of them, however, kept going, despite the harshness.
The Explorers.
New frontiers are discovered by Explorers, populated by Escapers and developed by Exploiters: the three E's.
We needed only to evolve our culture to survive in those harsh areas, and a little bit of selection helped in other subtle ways. Nowadays it is different.
There is no more land. There are no places on earth for the explorers, the escapers and the exploiters to go. We can't run away from bad societies like we have for millennia...
So we are forced, for the first time in Earth's history, to fix the whole world or leave it.
I hope, and believe, we can, and will, do both.
just the right time allowed everything to proceed as planned
What did we learn from the Shuttle program?
a. You can't control the weather
b. Schedules are just that, schedules. Don't fall in love with it.
c. Timing is everything, and not a science.... yet.
d. It's all about the initial conditions.
If you remain one of these people who doesn't think today is depressing as fuck, I'd like some of what you're having.
Today I'm drinking to the free market.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
You can go to NASA TV at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
They typically will replay the launch highlights on the first evening when the crew goes to bed and repeat every hour until the start of the next flight day.
Tonight's flight day highlights will start at 8:00 PM Central Time. At 10PM tonight they will have a special video on the history of the program.
On subsequent days, they will replay 'Flight Day NN' highlights in the same manner (once per hour on either the hour or half-hour mark, after the crew goes to sleep).
Also, about 5-6 days into a mission, NASA will release a compilation video they put together that includes outstanding launch imagery and sounds, taken from ground-based cameras, the solid socket boosters (SRB), and from the External Tank (ET) looking at the underside of the shuttle orbiter towards the tail.
They even include pictures taken from the Shuttle Orbiter herself using a camera in the liquid oxygen umbilical well, taking pictures as the external tank falls away into the atmosphere, as well video taken by the crew at the ISS as the orbiter does the elegant Rendezvous-Pitch-Maneuver (aka the backflip) on approach to the international space station.
Google for "STS-nnn ASCENT IMAGERY HIGHLIGHTS" in a few days (where nnn is 135 for this mission, but those of 134 and 133 were also spectacular.)
Highly recommended!
Big deal. All they've been doing is maintaining the space station, it's not like we were on the verge of heading to Mars. Nothing's different except some NASA funds are freed up now.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
The weather forecast for the whole day was basically cloudy except for 11-12. Glorious. I watched from Space View Park.