Godspeed, space shuttle Discovery

#1
MG1968

MG1968

That’s No Moon…
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Sep 17, 2006
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#1
Throngs view space shuttle Discovery's last launch - Yahoo! News

She's been flying since 1984 and this is her 39th and final mission.

Discovery already has 143 million miles to its credit, beginning with its first flight in 1984. By the time this mission ends, the shuttle will have tacked on another 4.5 million miles. And it will have spent 363 days in space and circled Earth 5,800 times when it returns March 7.

No other spacecraft has been launched so many times.
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#2
#2
My Leftist brethern and I agree to disagree on nuclear power and NASA. I firmly believe NASA has bequeathed our only contributions to world culture since jazz.

And that's with the smallest bit of the budget. If NASA used the CIA satellite budget for its continuing mission, think what could have been done!

"To understand and protect our home planet, to explore the Universe and search for life, and to inspire the next generation of explorers... as only NASA can" -- NASA's mission statement. Absolutely top-drawer stuff. To think Bush officials wanted "to understand and protect our home planet" taken out.

Absolutely bo bo pathetic from the most bo bo pathetic administration in the country's history.
 
#3
#3
utgibbs said:
My Leftist brethern and I agree to disagree on nuclear power and NASA. I firmly believe NASA has bequeathed our only contributions to world culture since jazz.

And that's with the smallest bit of the budget. If NASA used the CIA satellite budget for its continuing mission, think what could have been done!

"To understand and protect our home planet, to explore the Universe and search for life, and to inspire the next generation of explorers... as only NASA can" -- NASA's mission statement. Absolutely top-drawer stuff. To think Bush officials wanted "to understand and protect our home planet" taken out.

Absolutely bo bo pathetic from the most bo bo pathetic administration in the country's history.
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To boldly go where no man........
 
#4
#4
utgibbs said:
My Leftist brethern and I agree to disagree on nuclear power and NASA. I firmly believe NASA has bequeathed our only contributions to world culture since jazz.

And that's with the smallest bit of the budget. If NASA used the CIA satellite budget for its continuing mission, think what could have been done!

"To understand and protect our home planet, to explore the Universe and search for life, and to inspire the next generation of explorers... as only NASA can" -- NASA's mission statement. Absolutely top-drawer stuff. To think Bush officials wanted "to understand and protect our home planet" taken out.

Absolutely bo bo pathetic from the most bo bo pathetic administration in the country's history.
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and to think your socialist hero, Obama, has taken the US completely out of the manned-spaceflight game.

That's bo bo pathetic.
 
#5
#5
The money crunch is dictating these policies. I am a firm believer that once we actually start building things here again and Americans are allowed to produce and make products.These programs would even get a bump in monies appropriated.
 
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#6
orangeblooded2 said:
The money crunch is dictating these policies. I am a firm believer that once we actually start building things here again and Americans are allowed to produce and make products.These programs would even get a bump in monies appropriated.
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i've never understood why americans having more low income jobs is somehow going to bring the country out of debt.
 
#8
#8
orangeblooded2 said:
Can you really argue that a low income job is better than no job?
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sure, but if we are going to try to create jobs in an industry, manufacturing appears to be among the worst to do it. particurally if you factor in the labor competition.
 
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droski said:
sure, but if we are going to try to create jobs in an industry, manufacturing appears to be among the worst to do it. particurally if you factor in the labor competition.
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My argument is more basic. Taxes paid. People's ability to by their own food to support themselves and/or their family. To help the Government out by not having to use special programs.
 
#10
#10
orangeblooded2 said:
My argument is more basic. Taxes paid. People's ability to by their own food to support themselves and/or their family. To help the Government out by not having to use special programs.
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yes, but by subsidizing manufacturing in this country we make goods more expensive which hurts the majority of americans. so is it worth helping a few to increase costs for the rest of us?
 
#11
#11
droski said:
i've never understood why americans having more low income jobs is somehow going to bring the country out of debt.
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I don't know what your opinion of what a low/medium or high income should be but you simply can't skimp on aerospace. There is virtually no room for error in the manufacturing and maintenance arena. Aerospace is also another industry that we need to, tooth and nail, fight to keep in the United States.


With that said, there was no reason for the shuttle project any more. NASA has the correct role and that's of the overseer and contractor distributor, like MDA is at this point. Let corporations (SpaceX, Virgin, Boeing, Lockheed) absorb the developmental liability of launch/delivery/recovery platforms and their manufacturing.

This writing was on the wall since 2005 and NASA has adapted correctly.
 
#12
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droski said:
yes, but by subsidizing manufacturing in this country we make goods more expensive which hurts the majority of americans. so is it worth helping a few to increase costs for the rest of us?
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Too true. Everyone having access to cheap clothes helps all of us more than a few thousand getting paid too much to produce more expensive clothes.

Also, the U.S. manufactures huge amounts of products it's just that we operate on a trade deficit rather than a surplus. I'd bet you'd be able to explain how that's not all bad.
 
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#13
MG1968 said:
and to think your socialist hero, Obama, has taken the US completely out of the manned-spaceflight game.

That's bo bo pathetic.
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Not at all.

NASA saw the writing on the wall and petitioned private companies to bid on a manned (Dragon can deliver 7) low-cost option. This was back in 2005 anticipating a call for manned missions at least to the ISS and the Moon. Mars was also a pre-planned option. SpaceX won the contract and developed the Dragon platform which is already in use. All government ventures into space (DoD, NASA) are now with privatized launch platforms under government contracts.


The choice was a correct one as it breeds an air of competition for the best priced and most capable product. The US Navy doesn't actually design and build it's own ships. The USAF doesn't do that for it's fighters. NASA has now joined the normal DoD way of doing business.
 
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#15
#15
I walked outside my office yesterday with a minute to go in the countdown and watched the big orange lick of flame in the sky go up, up, up.
 
#20
#20
DC Vol said:
Not at all.

NASA saw the writing on the wall and petitioned private companies to bid on a manned (Dragon can deliver 7) low-cost option. This was back in 2005 anticipating a call for manned missions at least to the ISS and the Moon. Mars was also a pre-planned option. SpaceX won the contract and developed the Dragon platform which is already in use. All government ventures into space (DoD, NASA) are now with privatized launch platforms under government contracts.


The choice was a correct one as it breeds an air of competition for the best priced and most capable product. The US Navy doesn't actually design and build it's own ships. The USAF doesn't do that for it's fighters. NASA has now joined the normal DoD way of doing business.
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gibbs will be along shortly to smack you down for daring to suggest that private corporations can do things more efficiently than the government.

tbh, I'm in favor of private, manned-spaceflight, but it's kind of hard to get that patriotic vibe going on watching a Virgin Galactic craft launch into space.
 
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