NASA says goodbye to space shuttle Discovery.

[Superstreet]

NASA - Space Shuttle (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html)


Discovery was lifted and placed atop a NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) today in preparation for its departure to Dulles International Airport in Sterling, Va., on Tuesday, April 17. The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, designated NASA 905, is set to back out of the Mate/Demate device at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility tomorrow morning around 7:30 a.m. Discovery is set to just after sunrise and arrive in the Dulles/Washington, D.C. area around 10 a.m. Discovery will be moved to the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles for permanent public display on April 19.

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[VatorMan]

I may have to run out to Dulles tomorrow. That would be awesome to watch.

[Stangkiller]

It's so sad to see the shuttle program officially end with nothing to pick up the slack innovation wide.

If you've never seen a shuttle piggy back on the 747 it's incredible to see. It's flying so slowly, it looks like it's going to fall out of the sky.

[RonC5]

Was just out at the landing facility to see it on the 747. Pics in a second.

[Stangkiller]

Total political :bs: one of the shuttles is not coming to Houston. :mad:

We're getting a mock shuttle. :rofl: They say Obama had 'nothing' to do with it, but his hand picked staffer is who decided the shuttle allocations. Texas hates Obama, and Obamas scared of Texas (rightfully so).

[RonC5]

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[mrvette]

I remember at the start of the Shuttle program, a shuttle on top of a 747 flew by the hotel in Rockville Md, we were on the roof watching it go by.....yes, very slow....magnificent sight....:seasix:

and to think, no follow up program...:sadangel:

[RedLS1GTO]

Total political :bs: one of the shuttles is not coming to Houston. :mad:

What is way more political :bs: than that is that they aren't going to space...


The only word that keeps coming to mind is sad. :(

[VatorMan]

We're getting a mock shuttle. :rofl: They say Obama had 'nothing' to do with it, but his hand picked staffer is who decided the shuttle allocations. Texas hates Obama, and Obamas scared of Texas (rightfully so).

You must be getting the fake one that's at the Smithsonian right now. At least one REAL one SHOULD be at the Smithsonian.

[Stangkiller]

You must be getting the fake one that's at the Smithsonian right now. At least one REAL one SHOULD be at the Smithsonian.

I have no issues with the Smithsonian getting one. It's New York and California that I have issues with. Although I believe New York is getting the mock up from the Smithsonian, and i *think* Texas is getting the mockup that's been at the Visitors Center in Florida.

[LilRedCorvette]

I may have to run out to Dulles tomorrow. That would be awesome to watch.

Since I'm only about 15-20 min from IAD, I wanted to but alas both my vettes are still in the shop...

You must be getting the fake one that's at the Smithsonian right now. At least one REAL one SHOULD be at the Smithsonian.

:iagree:

[GRN ENVY]

You must be getting the fake one that's at the Smithsonian right now. At least one REAL one SHOULD be at the Smithsonian.

Screw the museum(s), I want them to be on a launch pad about to head to the I.S.S.

[RedLS1GTO]

Screw the museum(s), I want them to be on a launch pad about to head to the I.S.S.

http://messingwithdirt.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/hammer.jpg

[GRN ENVY]

:iagree:

But the program was canceled under Bush not Obama, to be fair.

What Obama did cancel was the Constellation program.

:cert:

Be that as it may, I still want them on the launch pads. I am glad that I have been able to stand in my driveway and watch them roar into space. One of my favorite memory's.

[Superstreet]

I don't disagree at all. :cert:

They were canceled WAY before the should have been. :yesnod:

The Rooskies have taken over the program and they are doing great! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Stangkiller]

I don't disagree at all. :cert:

They were canceled WAY before the should have been. :yesnod:

I'm sorry, the Shuttles proved to be FAR more expensive and complicated than they were originally designed for.

Originally they were supposed to be refueled and turned around in a period of a few weeks. Then the safety 'experts', engineers, and overall government bureaucracy, got a hold of the shuttle and full on overhauls started being performed between every flight (necessary or not, that wasn't the original plan). Lets face it, the Space Shuttle did a great job working as a pick up to get pieces to the ISS, but proved to be far more expensive than necessary. I was looking forward to a step forward with the constellation program.

Just my 2 cents.

[Stangkiller]

The Rooskies have taken over the program and they are doing great! :lol: :lol: :lol:

The rooskies tried to copy our Space Shuttle way back in the day. They made one unmanned flight and never flew again.

Buran (spacecraft) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[69camfrk]

I may have to run out to Dulles tomorrow. That would be awesome to watch.

It came into Robins AFB twice, and yes, it is something to behold!:seasix:

[GRN ENVY]

I don't disagree at all. :cert:

They were canceled WAY before the should have been. :yesnod:

:yesnod::cert:

[Firevette]

The rooskies tried to copy our Space Shuttle way back in the day. They made one unmanned flight and never flew again.

Buran (spacecraft) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_space_shuttle)

Interesting.:seasix:

[dwjz06]

I look forward to seeing her soon:cert:

[joecaver]

Back in the early days of the program they landed in Atlanta for an overnight stay and I drove over to see it. Very impressive. :seasix:

[erickpl]

Well let's find one gov't program that didn't come in over budget/price/cost? :D

That said, I would keep the shuttles flying (and NOT pay Russia or any other country to hitchhike into orbit) until we had our replacement ready. :cert:

With the measly (comparatively speaking) budget that NASA gets, there is no freakin' way they could afford both shuttle ops/maintenance AND development of Constellation or whatever it is replaced by.

People bitch and moan about how much NASA gets, but it is less than 1% of the entire federal budget. According to budget documents from GPO (Government Printing Office), the national budget for 2007 totaled about $2.784 trillion. At $16.143 billion, spending on NASA accounted for 0.58% of this budget.

In that same 2007 budget, the funding for social programs (calculated here as the budgets for:

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Housing and Urban Development (HUD - which shares the same appropriation)
Veterans Affairs
Social Security
Agriculture
Labor


added up to $1.581 trillion. For every $1 the federal government spent on NASA, it spent $98 on social programs. In other words, if we cut spending on social programs by a mere one percent, we could very nearly double NASA’s budget.

I won't get started on the waste that goes on in some of those social programs. But that very same waste could have been put to good use developing better systems at NASA and would have enabled flight ops and system development to both occur.

NASA spending made up more than 5% of the federal budget during the Apollo program. If it received 5% of the federal budget today, its annual funding level would be around $139.2 billion dollars. Imagine what they could do if it had that level of support.

[erickpl]

It came into Robins AFB twice, and yes, it is something to behold!:seasix:


I had the honor and pleasure of seeing Discovery on the pad at KSC, then returning to Dryden after my meetings at KSC and seeing it land at Edwards. Seeing the work they do prior to the Mate/Demate device work as well as the mating is pretty damn cool. But those things can get NASTY inside. Imagine all the crap floating around that has to land somewhere during reentry.

I have also been in the 747 SCA aircraft. MAN those things are HUGE inside with all the passenger junk removed. Only about 14 seats are left in the nose for support crew. I have GOT to find my pics from that landing at Dryden. They are on film and I have to scan em.

[...Whitepower...]

http://jalopnik.com/5902662/watch-space-shuttle-discoverys-final-flight-as-america-records-it/gallery/1?utm_campaign=socialflow_jalopnik_facebook&utm_source=jalopnik_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Pics and video is in the link..

[NB2K]

With the measly (comparatively speaking) budget that NASA gets, there is no freakin' way they could afford both shuttle ops/maintenance AND development of Constellation or whatever it is replaced by.

People bitch and moan about how much NASA gets, but it is less than 1% of the entire federal budget. According to budget documents from GPO (Government Printing Office), the national budget for 2007 totaled about $2.784 trillion. At $16.143 billion, spending on NASA accounted for 0.58% of this budget.

In that same 2007 budget, the funding for social programs (calculated here as the budgets for:

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Housing and Urban Development (HUD - which shares the same appropriation)
Veterans Affairs
Social Security
Agriculture
Labor


added up to $1.581 trillion. For every $1 the federal government spent on NASA, it spent $98 on social programs. In other words, if we cut spending on social programs by a mere one percent, we could very nearly double NASA’s budget.

I won't get started on the waste that goes on in some of those social programs. But that very same waste could have been put to good use developing better systems at NASA and would have enabled flight ops and system development to both occur.

NASA spending made up more than 5% of the federal budget during the Apollo program. If it received 5% of the federal budget today, its annual funding level would be around $139.2 billion dollars. Imagine what they could do if it had that level of support.

Best.
Post.
Ever.




Better get an umbrella, cause it's raining cold, hard facts in here...

[Entropy]

Neil deGrasse Tyson - We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 1) - YouTube

[ZipZap]

Well let's find one gov't program that didn't come in over budget/price/cost? :D

That said, I would keep the shuttles flying (and NOT pay Russia or any other country to hitchhike into orbit) until we had our replacement ready. :cert:

Manned spaceflight is in shambles for the entire world, not just the US. As far as getting supplies to the ISS, the F9/Dragon stack is scheduled for sometime this year. Manned flight to the ISS, unless doing so to replace crew, has always been an ineffective use of resources. We don't need a shuttle replacement, as we really didn't get a whole lot from the shuttle over the past decade. In most cases, missions were created to justify the shuttle, vs. the other way around.

I have a hard time justifying manned spaceflight at all these days when the cability of remote sensing far exceeds the capability of a human, and the costs are orders of magnitude lower.