End of the Space Shuttle Program

Published on July 8, 2011 By Island Dog In Personal Computing

Way back in 1981 I was lucky enough to watch the first Space Shuttle launch from the Kennedy Space Center. I was just a kid then but what an awesome site it was! It's funny to think back now how there were no cell phones, and all the other high-tech things we rely on today.

This morning I took my family to nearly the exact same spot to view the final launch of both the Space Shuttle Atlantic and the Space Shuttle program. The amount of people that came to the space coast to see it was incredible, and the cheering from the crowd along with the rumble of the launch was a fantastic feeling.

Regardless of how you feel about the politics surrounding the end of the Shuttle program, I think we can all agree an icon of America made it's last launch today.

Here are some images we took.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/islanddog/

Comments (Page 4)

DrJBHL

on Jul 10, 2011

Phoon

reply 31

Quoting DrJBHL, reply 5During my life, I've seen Sputnik, the space race, the Apollo, Gemini and the Shuttle programs. hey Doc.. you left out.. " the invention of the wheel" LOL

starkers

reply 39

Quoting Phoon, reply 31
Quoting DrJBHL, reply 5During my life, I've seen Sputnik, the space race, the Apollo, Gemini and the Shuttle programs. hey Doc.. you left out.. " the invention of the wheel" LOL

Hehe... Doc is so old. he was there when caveman first discovered fire.

Yep. And I got the T shirt.

vStyler

on Jul 10, 2011

I was just a kid then but what an awesome site it was!

Are you talking about WC here? Maybe your working too much ID !

Great pics man

Dr Guy

on Jul 11, 2011

Nothing is static. The shuttles, state of the art in the early 80s, are antiques by today's standards. instead of upgrading them as technology raced ahead, NASA seemed to want to stay with "what worked" (even though it did not on a couple of occasions). The program could have continued with just a little bit of planning. But now it is gone, and the replacement? Not really ready for prime time yet.

But private industry has caught up and may make space a viable commercial venture yet! With machines that put the shuttles to shame. I am saddened by the ending of the program, as my own cousin was one of the primary designers way back when (he left before the Challenger episode).

DsRaider

on Jul 11, 2011

Everyone here should read this for more information on commercial space programs:
WHY THE US CAN BEAT CHINA: THE FACTS ABOUT SPACEX COSTS

Polistes

on Jul 11, 2011

Kamamura_CZ

reply 44

Quoting Polistes,
reply 34

Learning how to exploit these things should be our top priority considering our situation. Also not to mention finding a new home and learning how to build up the infrastructure is also important, Earth is dying we will need a new one in the the short term future.

I firmly believe that the "space colonization" dream is utterly impossible - it's just an extrapolation of the old colonists' dream coming to America. This time, however, the very laws of physics are not our friends. I recommend to everyone this excellent article I found on Slashdot years ago:

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/06/the_high_frontier_redux.html

Just a single quote: "I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people settling the Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert is about a thousand times as hospitable as Mars and five hundred times cheaper and easier to reach. Nobody ever writes "Gobi Desert Opera" because, well, it's just kind of plonkingly obvious that there's no good reason to go there and live. It's ugly, it's inhospitable and there's no way to make it pay. Mars is just the same, really. We just romanticize it because it's so hard to reach.

...

Colonize the Gobi desert, colonise the North Atlantic in winter — then get back to me about the rest of the solar system!"

In other words, if we are admitting the possibility of killing Earth's biosphere soon, we are also admitting our instincts has led us to an evolutionary dead end, and that despite all the rational thinking, we are a suicidal species. Compare it to the current "perpetual growth" economic propaganda, and you get a picture of clear insanity.

Tribes of nomads live in the Gobi desert already. And honestly there is no point in colonizing the gobi because there are no valuable resources, while space offers quite a few in abundance that make the extreme cost worth while, but as it is no one is currently willing to put in the investment. Even the moon has valuable resources that can be used in nuclear fusion and have an estimated worth of several billion dollars, at least according to the science channel. And asteroids have been documented to have several trillion dollars worth of valuable minerals... which I dont think I need to mention would be a great asset if we could get them.

sydneysiders

on Jul 12, 2011

I always like to think of our space exploration as not from any one country... but representing humanity as a whole... rose coloured glasses I suppose...

but I hope it does continue...

vStyler

on Jul 13, 2011

Struck down by a Marxist with one stroke of a pen.

kyogre12

on Jul 13, 2011

vStyler

reply 52

Struck down by a Marxist with one stroke of a pen.

You know Bush was the one who ordered the end of the shuttle program, right? (I just assume that when anyone is talking about a "Marxist/Socialist/Communist" they're talking about Obama )

Zeta1127

on Jul 14, 2011

Obama doesn't want to fund Project Orion, that is clearly striking down something. Obama claims to want to make the United States a leader in science and technology, but is willing to let the Space Shuttle program die without a replacement, thereby forcing us to rely on the Russians to get to the ISS.

kyogre12

on Jul 14, 2011

Zeta1127

reply 54

He killed the Constellation Program, not the Orion. Constellation was supposed to go to the Moon, etc, while the Orion is the actual spacecraft that would go to the Moon. The Orion was never cancelled (although it is now technically the "Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle") and will be used for the missions to asteroids, Mars, and the ISS. The first test flight is scheduled for 2013. Even if Constellation hadn't been cancelled, we wouldn't get the Orion any sooner, and we would still have a couple years of not a Shuttle replacement ready to go. The Shuttle was originally planned to be retired in 2010, and it was under Obama's administration that it was extended to 2011.

Quite frankly, I am disappointed that we don't have a replacement ready to go as well. But disappointment is not a reason to unfairly blame a President for things that are not entirely his fault, regardless of how you feel about his policies.

Anthony R

on Jul 14, 2011

Ten years from now, you can always bring the family to Beijing to marvel at the space program

Disturbedcomputer

on Jul 14, 2011

It sucks but I think I heard that they will start up a new program in 6 to 10 years (manned missions again)

They are still going up I think just not here .. but in Russia or other countries

I got to go to the kennedy space center as an VIP Thanks to George Bush (05-11-2009) FREE!!! just wrote him a letter and he sent it off the NASA...

got to see NASA Space Operations see the astronauts as the was heading to Atlantis (to fix the hubble telescope) was not able to get too close to them but damn close do to the quarantine they go through.

did get a tour of NASA Space Operations by an astronaut can't remember his name but then again I forgot his name 5 seconds after he told us (maybe if I up a picture one of you would know what his name is?? )

I would have Like to seen a Night time Launch maybe some day..

Disturbedcomputer

on Jul 14, 2011

here it is plus one

No not the fat one the one on the left your left

By [URL=http://profile.imageshack.us/user/disturbedcomputer]disturbedcomputer[/URL] at 2011-07-14

sydneysiders

on Jul 14, 2011

that's cool DC.... certainly pays to open your mouth and ask...

Zeta1127

on Jul 14, 2011

Project Constellation and Project Orion, same difference, Orion is a part of Constellation. Orion might as well be canceled without Constellation.

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