Does anyone else think they should keep the shuttle flying?

[manlymatt83]

Home page of CNN: http://www.cnn.com/

Today is the last time Atlantis will fly. There are two remaining missions left. What are your thoughts? Should they keep the shuttle program going?

http://www.popsci.com/technology/ar...s-extending-shuttle-program-another-two-years

 

[SunnyD]

Poll? Yes.

 

[K1052]

They should have not defunded it's replacement, VentureStar.

 

[techs]

Yes, raise my taxes to keep the shuttle flying.

 

[Pheran]

No. As much respect as I have for the astronauts, economically the shuttle has always been a giant boondoggle. Manned space missions are good, but we need more reasonable technology to do it with.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

No, make something better and fly that.

 

[darkxshade]

shuttle program going?

Be more clear... keep that shuttle flying or the shuttle program going? No on the first, yes on the 2nd.

 

[JTsyo]

I think we need something new but keep the shuttle alive until that something new comes around. Who knows how long this gap will be before we get a new vehicle.

 

[Pantlegz]

I think we need something new but keep the shuttle alive until that something new comes around. Who knows how long this gap will be before we get a new vehicle.

This is what I was thinking, why not keep it around until we have a replacement? Knowing the way the govt works it'll be 10 years till we have a possible replacement. Probably 20 untill we see anything.

 

[NuclearNed]

The basic design of the shuttles is 30+ years old. I'm all for manned space missions, but you've gotta think that we could do them better & cheaper if we used more modern technology. If killing the shuttle program forces this change to happen, then I say kill it sooner than later.

 

[irishScott]

When a replacement has been designed, constructed, tested to beyond failure, and is sitting on the launch pad, I will feel fine with retiring the shuttle.

 

[Pantlegz]

The basic design of the shuttles is 30+ years old. I'm all for manned space missions, but you've gotta think that we could do them better & cheaper if we used more modern technology. If killing the shuttle program forces this change to happen, then I say kill it sooner than later.

Shortest NN post ever?

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

When a replacement has been designed, constructed, tested to beyond failure, and is sitting on the launch pad, I will feel fine with retiring the shuttle.

Right. Keep flying the shuttle until we have a working viable replacement.
Once the shuttles stop flying we will be completely dependant on the Russians to get our people and supplies to the ISS.

As far as taxes go, there are a lot more useless things the governemnt spends money on that could be cut to fund space exploration.

Just look at the report released showing that the $1Trillion we've spent on the war on drugs has done nothing.

Space exploration is needed to ensure the survival of humanity.

 

[Jadow]

people replace their cars after like 5-6 years, but we've used the same shuttles for 30. I wouldnt want to go up in one. no matter how well they maintain it.

I did LOL when I saw they had to go to ebay to get old Intel 8088 and 8080 cpus as replacement parts.

 

[dmcowen674]

Home page of CNN: http://www.cnn.com/

Today is the last time Atlantis will fly. There are two remaining missions left. What are your thoughts? Should they keep the shuttle program going?

http://www.popsci.com/technology/ar...s-extending-shuttle-program-another-two-years

Never should've stopped building them.

We are retarded and don't deserve to be in space anymore.

 

[manlymatt83]

people replace their cars after like 5-6 years, but we've used the same shuttles for 30. I wouldnt want to go up in one. no matter how well they maintain it.

I feel the opposite. The only vehicle I would trust would be the shuttle. 2 failures out of 100+ launches? Sounds good to me.

 

[invidia]

Drop the shuttle program and start making some hover cars. We were suppose to look like Coruscant by 2010. In some parts of the U.S. looks like we're still in the Civil War times.

 

[K1052]

I feel the opposite. The only vehicle I would trust would be the shuttle. 2 failures out of 100+ launches? Sounds good to me.

About 1 catastrophic (total loss of crew and orbiter) failure every 65 launches?

Far too high for a program dinging us for $450M a launch and a couple billion per orbiter.

 

[preslove]

No. And we shouldn't waste money on a NASA owned replacement. The sooner we get out of the routine LEO business, the sooner the private sector will step in to replace us. There's a chance that one company can start taking astronauts to the space station by 2013. Until then, Soyuz will work just fine.

NASA should focus on the future and leave the 20th century tech to private firms.

 

[Riceninja]

i agree with obama's vision that we should leave the grunt work to private firms and make nasa focus on pioneering technology

 

[dmcowen674]

i agree with obama's vision that we should leave the grunt work to private firms and make nasa focus on pioneering technology

Pioneering what? Pounding sand?

 

[amdhunter]

It depends on the building they are aiming for.

 

[CaptnKirk]

They should have not defunded it's replacement, VentureStar.

Except for that little problem in the fact that it didn't work, a minor technically, huh?

X-33 - Cancellation and Continued Work
Failures in VentureStar's technology demonstrator, the X-33, in particular with the composite LH2 (liquid hydrogen) tank,
led to program cancellation as a federal undertaking on March 1, 2001.

Maybe that contributed to the switching to the Constellation concept.

 

[preslove]

Pioneering what? Pounding sand?

Obama's plan would 1) help private space firms grow 2) build a heavy lift vehicle platform sooner 3) leave more $ for unmanned probes.

 

[RaistlinZ]

The shuttle is long overdue for a complete redesign. I'm 100% sure manned flight can be done cheaper and safer using more modern technology and materials. Every time I watch a shuttle take off I almost expect a massive explosion during the first 60 seconds. That's not the way it should be.

And to people saying we should keep Shuttle around until something new is built...that will guarantee that nothing new will be built for at least 10 years. Get rid of the Shuttle and we'll have no other option but to develop something new, and to do it sooner rather than later.

Don't fear progress and change. Fear 30+ year old shuttles going up into space with Intel 8088 CPU's running them.