New Mission...

Damn, that sentence about the windows of the cabin being forever dark was depressing.

Will I dream?

It is pathetic in our myopic and self-serving times we have forgotten what the quest for discovery brought humanity.

Oh wait, let me check my I-POD. Maybe I have a tweet.... or....

No more taxes. Government never accomplished anything. derp, derp, derp...

Farking pathetic we have become.

Farewell Discovery... and we thank you.

Demetrius: HAL - the three letters before...
IBM

We'll always remember you, old girl. Thank you for taking us to the final frontier.

Damn, something in my eyes. I only got weepy like this for one other spaceship.



/"My God, Bones. What have I done?"

bibli0phile: It is pathetic in our myopic and self-serving times we have forgotten what the quest for discovery brought humanity.

Oh wait, let me check my I-POD. Maybe I have a tweet.... or....

No more taxes. Government never accomplished anything. derp, derp, derp...

Farking pathetic we have become.

This.
All of it.

The shuttle program was a disaster in more ways than one, but it's still sad to see them retired with no replacement in place.

HaveBeerWillTravel: Call it a space truck all you want, but then take a moment and realize, "Holy crap, a space truck?" Yes, a space truck. A piece of technology that reliably got us off the planet less than 80 years after we got a bike with wings off a beach in North Carolina.

It's a pretty amazing candidate for the most amazing thing we have ever built as a species. Just sayin'.

When they eventually make such a list, you know the iPod will be #1.

/already building my rage for it

I can think of no more fitting an allegory than this in relation to the end of the United States of America. What comes now I can only see will be a repetition of Rome. The end of the Republic, the beginning of Empire and the future destruction and dark ages ( at least for whitey ).

/ yeah I went there

// Ghengis Khan 2012!

Keizer_Ghidorah: When they eventually make such a list, you know the iPod will be #1.

/already building my rage for it

i think that the wheel should be #1 and the ipod #2

/big steaming pile of #2

Britney Spear's Speculum: bibli0phile: It is pathetic in our myopic and self-serving times we have forgotten what the quest for discovery brought humanity.

Oh wait, let me check my I-POD. Maybe I have a tweet.... or....

No more taxes. Government never accomplished anything. derp, derp, derp...

Farking pathetic we have become.

This.
All of it.

Indeed.

You know, I've understood and accepted the fact the space shuttle program would end since I was five and saw the Challenger disaster live on CNN. I also comforted myself with the knowledge that like Mercury, Gemini and Apollo it would be replaced with a larger program and newer equipment that would expand our capacity to explore and learn.

I can't be sad for the passing of the shuttle program. The program and its equipment did its job marvelously and went above and beyond the call of duty, the Challenger and Columbia disasters excluded. Though you have to admit those were some biatchin' "explosions". All I really can do is be angry towards Capitol Hill for deciding to play political football with NASA and space exploration to the point the "new hotness" is a friggin' bottle rocket compared to the Saturn V.

And I think it's gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no, no, no, I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone

My name is Dave and I approved this thread.

Quite a few fu*ks were given that day

Keizer_Ghidorah: We'll always remember you, old girl. Thank you for taking us to the final frontier.

Damn, something in my eyes. I only got weepy like this for one other spaceship.

[mos.totalfilm.com image 440x280]

/"My God, Bones. What have I done?"


The Enterprise will live on...

Fark going to space, we need to forget what made the USA great and worry about trivial shiat without understanding that trivial got us to the moon in the first place

that bosnian sniper: You know, I've understood and accepted the fact the space shuttle program would end since I was five and saw the Challenger disaster live on CNN. I also comforted myself with the knowledge that like Mercury, Gemini and Apollo it would be replaced with a larger program and newer equipment that would expand our capacity to explore and learn.

I can't be sad for the passing of the shuttle program. The program and its equipment did its job marvelously and went above and beyond the call of duty, the Challenger and Columbia disasters excluded. Though you have to admit those were some biatchin' "explosions". All I really can do is be angry towards Capitol Hill for deciding to play political football with NASA and space exploration to the point the "new hotness" is a friggin' bottle rocket compared to the Saturn V.

============

Saturn V Launch Views - High Speed Cams

davidphogan: The shuttle program was a disaster in more ways than one, but it's still sad to see them retired with no replacement in place.

Not sure if serious. We have a replacement plan. Several. Boeing will have a manned flight of its capsule in 2015, Lockheed Martin will have a non-manned flight of the Orion in 2014. Space X is hoping to start ferrying humans into space sometime in the future after they prove how capable they are of ferrying cargo to the ISS. Not to mention another of other private spaceflight capabilities.

Granted, it all depends on whether the private spaceflight industry can make a profit and can cut it but with the progress they've made so far I'm optimistic. With the end result being a more efficient/capable US space industry. That it's to say it will be easy, but I think we'll be able to pull it off.

Grrrr... Feint vs. Faint, Moot vs. Mute, Jibe vs. Jive. These are little things that blow up shuttles. Spell Check is not your friend OP.

bbfreak: davidphogan: The shuttle program was a disaster in more ways than one, but it's still sad to see them retired with no replacement in place.

Not sure if serious. We have a replacement plan. Several. Boeing will have a manned flight of its capsule in 2015, Lockheed Martin will have a non-manned flight of the Orion in 2014. Space X is hoping to start ferrying humans into space sometime in the future after they prove how capable they are of ferrying cargo to the ISS. Not to mention another of other private spaceflight capabilities.

Granted, it all depends on whether the private spaceflight industry can make a profit and can cut it but with the progress they've made so far I'm optimistic. With the end result being a more efficient/capable US space industry. That it's to say it will be easy, but I think we'll be able to pull it off.

===========

Give it up. All the ex-Nazi rocket scientists are now dead or too feeble to leave the nursing home. End of an era. Good night, Werner von.

.... isn't this like the 20th article about how the shuttle missions are over?

Fissile: Saturn V Launch Views - High Speed Cams

Ironically enough, I found and watched that same video on a whim totally unrelated to this news story not three hours ago. Was actually chatting about the X-15 and ended up on a tangent.

Fissile: Give it up. All the ex-Nazi rocket scientists are now dead or too feeble to leave the nursing home. End of an era. Good night, Werner von.

Our Germans were younger than their Germans. Now we just need new Germans.

Though judging from Merkel's yap and German public opinion of late, we may have an opportunity to secure new ones quite soon.

Damn...

I can't wait to see what NASA comes up with next.

What a shame about the end of this era. Only 2 of them blew up. I sure hope any replacement plan includes aircraft that not only can fly into space...but also does not murder astronauts.

I'm not sure how to calculate the value of what the program amassed versus what it spent, but I'm pretty sure we could find people right here on earth who are willing to kill astronauts for free.

Donald H. Geiss: Grrrr... Feint vs. Faint, Moot vs. Mute, Jibe vs. Jive. These are little things that blow up shuttles. Spell Check is not your friend OP.

For all intensive purposes the message gets across irregardless of the errors.

bibli0phile: It is pathetic in our myopic and self-serving times we have forgotten what the quest for discovery brought humanity.

Oh wait, let me check my I-POD. Maybe I have a tweet.... or....

No more taxes. Government never accomplished anything. derp, derp, derp...

Farking pathetic we have become.

Speaking of derp, derp, derp........and flat out ignorance...

I would pay every cent I have to be able to sit in that cockpit when she gets ferried to her final destination.