Slashdot Mirror
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
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.
Sounded like they said the sensor noting retraction of the cone dome thing wasn't working so they had to verify visually (that was the camera 62 shot).
12:50 - press return.
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!
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
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
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.
You now, If somebody at NASA had some big balls this could work to it's advantage.
Congresscritter: "We're shutting off funding for the ISS, the James Web Telescope and further research on Tang - we don't have the money."
Guido from NASA: "That's a nice city you have there. Shame for something to happen to it. You know, those reentry calculations are really quite difficult and it's easy to mess up the numbers. Better if we had enough money to ensure that sort of thing could never, ever happen."
Unfortunately, the next statement from the politician would be something along the line of "look, a pony!" - I doubt they would even begin to understand the concept. But it's a pleasant enough thought.
It would be fun to be part of the Space Enforcers....
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
a new one will take some time to get up and going.
That was a well known issue and the plan was to have something new before shuttle retirement. Too bad all the attempts at something new were never followed through on.
more like defunded by Republicans.
Eisenhower (R): Skeptical of manned flight but in favor of satellites. Created NASA. Wanted to avoid space race and the bureaucracy that would follow.
Kennedy (D): ***Opposed*** Apollo as a senator, poised to dismantle Apollo early in his presidency. Vice President Johnson got him to postpone any decision and Yuri Gagarin's flight got JFK to reverse course and support Apollo.
Johnson (D): Believed in the space program but cut NASA, in part to fund his social programs and Vietnam.
Nixon (R): NASA funding declined, some Apollo missions canceled, Nixon did not like the moon base and mars landing plans. However he did like and approve the Space Shuttle. He also approved joint missions with the Soviet Union.
Ford (R): Minor NASA funding increase.
Carter (D): Did not like Apollo-style programs, only approved of limited short range goals.
Reagan (R): Sought to increase NASA funding by 30%.
Bush Sr (R): Sought to increase NASA funding by 20%.
Clinton (D): In favor of manned and unmanned missions.
Bush Jr (R): Big fan of space exploration, manned and robotic. Proposed return to moon, landing on Mars. Various rocket and capsule programs were approved.
Obama (D): Canceled programs, rejected return to moon. Funded a new heavy lift rocket.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_policy_of_the_United_States
The fundamental problem with the space shuttle concept is that mass in orbit is worth more than its weight in gold, so it is pointless to bring that mass back to Earth in the form of a space shuttle. A minimal return capsule like with Apollo for crew makes more sense. Even now, the best place for the shuttles to be kept is probably in space, docked to the space station, where they could be used as living space or raw materials for future projects. The whole idea was stupid energetically. Also, as anyone who watches "This Old House" knows, new construction is generally cheaper than renovations, and so it would have been much cheaper to keep churning out new rocket than to renovate the space shuttle after every trip. While people hoped for more with reuseable space shuttles, these two basic problems made the whole concept problematical.
With that said, I can still be sad about the ending of an era, and for the people who will lose their jobs and the work communities they belonged to.
Ideally, the retirement of the shuttle may free up funds for new innovative projects, I hope. But with the US budget such a mess, it's hard to know that for sure.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.