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Space Shuttle Atlantis Last Night In Space Orbit

Posted by samzenpus on from the end-of-an-era dept.

techtribune writes "Tomorrow will be a bittersweet day for the crew aboard the NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis as they begin their return home to Earth. This will be the last space shuttle re-entry, the last landing, and the very last crew to pilot the shuttle in U.S. history. The Atlantis Space Shuttle undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday after delivering a lot of supplies, batteries, and other hardware to the station. They are bringing a lot of trash and everything else that needs to be brought back to Earth, as it's the very last opportunity for NASA to do so on its own." In a related topic, MarkWhittington wrote in with a story about why we stopped going to the moon and why there are no plans to go back.

4 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Apes by x_IamSpartacus_x · · Score: 5, Funny

    I say we all put on ape costumes and greet them at the shuttle door just to screw with their heads.

  2. Manned space flight is a bust by yoghurt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People stopped going to the moon and skylab because they ran out of useful things to do there.

    The reason for people in space is because it makes for better marketing.

    All the science is done by unmanned probes. The Mars rovers have been a huge success. Sure they are less capable than a human, but they are much cheaper, they can stay there a long time, you don't have to bring them back and if something goes wrong on Mars at least nobody gets hurt hence you can tolerate a modest risk of failure.

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    Yoghurt
  3. Risk by Princeofcups · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The reason that our space program is dead in the water is that we are pathologically afraid of the risk of anyone dying. If there's an accident, the entire program shuts down. Not for a couple of weeks, but for nearly a decade while congress has meeting after meeting, and even more bureacracy is put into place to hamper all programs. The solution is a lean, mean, risk taking NASA that can get a new vehicle out there flying every year to test out the technologies and toughen up the astronauts for the conquering of space, which will be the most difficult thing that the human race has done to date.

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    The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
  4. Re:counting unhatched chickens by JockTroll · · Score: 4, Funny

    If your car exploded once a month while driving to or from work, what would you call it?

    A Ford Taliban?

    --
    Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.