Farewell to the Shuttle Program

[manlymatt83]

After 30+ years of making history, the space shuttle program will end late this evening/early tomorrow morning at 6 AM eastern time, when Space Shuttle Atlantis will call out "Wheels Stop" at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

After that, hundreds of workers will be laid off immediately with more coming in the next few weeks, and even more after a few months once the shuttles are retired.

I'm really sad today I've been a big fan of the shuttle program for quite some time and have seen three launches. No landings, though. Any Floridians here seen a landing and heard those "sonic booms"? Is it worth it? I've actually considered flying down tonight so I can witness it in the morning.

In any event, long live the Shuttle Program and all the research it's brought home and the legacy it will leave behind.

 

[Krynj]

It's the last landing ever man. Get on a plane pronto! I bet it'd be a pretty surreal experience.

 

[LegendKiller]

I have no remorse that it is ending. It was an utter failure from the beginning to end, never having met its goals or objectives and not advancing us beyond LEO for 30 years. It was, effectively, a boondoggle.

 

[dougp]

I have no remorse that it is ending. It was an utter failure from the beginning to end, never having met its goals or objectives and not advancing us beyond LEO for 30 years. It was, effectively, a boondoggle.

Which, as usual, is the result of poor management & budget handling.

 

[LegendKiller]

Which, as usual, is the result of poor management & budget handling.

From what I've read, the possibility of them meeting the goals was extremely slim. Similar to Star Wars, it was a program that set goals that were far outside of the realm of possibility while spending gobs of money.

 

[manlymatt83]

It's the last landing ever man. Get on a plane pronto! I bet it'd be a pretty surreal experience.

Eh, after seeing three launches (including the current mission, I JUST got home last week) I resist pulling yet another all nighter and messing up my sleep schedule again for two sonic booms I won't even see it land, it'll be dark.

 

[dainthomas]

I have no remorse that it is ending. It was an utter failure from the beginning to end, never having met its goals or objectives and not advancing us beyond LEO for 30 years. It was, effectively, a boondoggle.

At least we're replacing it with an existing well planned and funded program to get us back to the moon and on to Mars.

Oh wait, we're not.

 

[ichy]

It's time for the shuttle to go. It was supposed to offer cheap, reliable and safe transportation to space and it failed at all three of those objectives. The real tragedy is that it's not being replace by something better.

 

[foghorn67]

They projected a 2% catastrophic failure rate from the get go. "safe" was relative term. Folks thought shuttle launches were just as routine as a jetliner takeoff that looked prettier. I blame them, not NASA.

 

[ichy]

They projected a 2% catastrophic failure rate from the get go. "safe" was relative term. Folks thought shuttle launches were just as routine as a jetliner takeoff that looked prettier. I blame them, not NASA.

Some people at NASA were trumpeting a claim that the shuttle would have a 1 in 100,000 failure rate. I'm surprised they didn't turn purple from all the Kool-Aid they were drinking.

 

[RaistlinZ]

It's time for the Shuttle to go. We haven't gone further out into space in decades. Doing field trips to the International Space Station is well and good, but it's not getting us any further out into space. It's time to move on with the next generation of manned spacecraft.

 

[dmcowen674]

I have no remorse that it is ending. It was an utter failure from the beginning to end, never having met its goals or objectives and not advancing us beyond LEO for 30 years. It was, effectively, a boondoggle.

People like this that hate America but continue to live here and continue to destroy it is what is really sad.

The only reason they stay here is they continue to line their personal pockets off real Americans backs.

 

[dmcowen674]

After 30+ years of making history, the space shuttle program will end late this evening/early tomorrow morning at 6 AM eastern time, when Space Shuttle Atlantis will call out "Wheels Stop" at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

After that, hundreds of workers will be laid off immediately with more coming in the next few weeks, and even more after a few months once the shuttles are retired.

I'm really sad today I've been a big fan of the shuttle program for quite some time and have seen three launches. No landings, though. Any Floridians here seen a landing and heard those "sonic booms"? Is it worth it? I've actually considered flying down tonight so I can witness it in the morning.

In any event, long live the Shuttle Program and all the research it's brought home and the legacy it will leave behind.

I grew up with people that worked at places like Grumman and worked their asses off for America's space program.

Hats off to the real Americans and Rocket Scientists, you will be missed.

The only Rocket Scientists left are now sadly in China

 

[Kadarin]

It's time for the Shuttle to go. We haven't gone further out into space in decades. Doing field trips to the International Space Station is well and good, but it's not getting us any further out into space. It's time to move on with the next generation of manned spacecraft.

It sure is a good thing that we have such visionary and capable people in government who are hard at work ensuring that the USA will remain at the forefront of manned space travel.

Oh, wait.

 

[qliveur]

They projected a 2% catastrophic failure rate from the get go. "safe" was relative term. Folks thought shuttle launches were just as routine as a jetliner takeoff that looked prettier. I blame them, not NASA.

If true, then that goal was exceeded. The catastrophic failure rate was less than 1.5%.

 

[OlafSicky]

Good riddance !! I'm glad it's over should have been ended years ago. The shuttle program is nothing more that a massive welfare program for people who worked on it, and corporations. It accomplished absolutely noting other than wasting billions of taxpayers dollars.

 

[ichy]

Good riddance !! I'm glad it's over should have been ended years ago. The shuttle program is nothing more that a massive welfare program for people who worked on it, and corporations. It accomplished absolutely noting other than wasting billions of taxpayers dollars.

How about the Hubble Space Telescope? Or building the International Space Station? Or the vast amount of map-making data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission? I could go on and on, but the shuttle accomplished a lot. The real question is was it worth the cost and the risk? The unfortunate answer to that is no IMO. Manned spaceflight is only worth it if you're actually exploring new places. If you're not doing that then most of what the shuttle did could have been done by robots.

 

[ichy]

If true, then that goal was exceeded. The catastrophic failure rate was less than 1.5%.

John Young (commander of STS-1) said it best when he said that anyone who thinks they can statistically model the failure rate of something as complex as the shuttle is smoking something they shouldn't be.

 

[BUTCH1]

The booms are really loud but not worth driving for IMO..

 

[dud]

I am turning off my alarm tonight and making use of the twin sonic booms to wake me up in the morning. I'm leveraging space technology for everyday use ...

 

[darkswordsman17]

WTF? How are people claiming the Shuttle did not advance us?

 

[fatpat268]

I have no remorse that it is ending. It was an utter failure from the beginning to end, never having met its goals or objectives and not advancing us beyond LEO for 30 years. It was, effectively, a boondoggle.

Same here. I'm more annoyed that we don't have a replacement for the shuttle by now.

 

[OlafSicky]

Or building the International Space Station?

LOL that is a bigger waste even than the shuttle :thumbsdown:

 

[KaOTiK]

After 30+ years of making history, the space shuttle program will end late this evening/early tomorrow morning at 6 AM eastern time, when Space Shuttle Atlantis will call out "Wheels Stop" at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

After that, hundreds of workers will be laid off immediately with more coming in the next few weeks, and even more after a few months once the shuttles are retired.

I'm really sad today I've been a big fan of the shuttle program for quite some time and have seen three launches. No landings, though. Any Floridians here seen a landing and heard those "sonic booms"? Is it worth it? I've actually considered flying down tonight so I can witness it in the morning.

In any event, long live the Shuttle Program and all the research it's brought home and the legacy it will leave behind.

I've lived in FL for 22 years now and seen many man launches and a few landings. The landings are nothing special, the only reason I even saw them is because my best friends parents own a house out there that they hardly ever use so we go out there for few days here and there. The sonic booms are kind neat and if you forget the shuttle is suppose to be coming in they startle you a bit for a split second, sometimes they'll wake you up depending on how heavy of a sleeper you are (one of my ex's would always freak out jumping out of the bed lol).

The launches, especially the night launches were down right brilliant. The night ones, my god you can see the solid rocket boosters detach with the naked eye if the sky was clear and still see the shuttle climbing.

 

[LegendKiller]

I grew up with people that worked at places like Grumman and worked their asses off for America's space program.

Hats off to the real Americans and Rocket Scientists, you will be missed.

The only Rocket Scientists left are now sadly in China

Good to know you're a rocket scientist to go with your PhDs in Civil Engineering (Minneapolis bridge collapse), seismology (Minneapolis bridge collapse, CA Earthquake after Japan Earthquake, NJ earthquake), meteorology (you can call a tornado from the radar and the hurricanes from video), petroleum engineering (Drive For Five!), farming ($5 milk gallons). Add that to your boat, failed bar...etc.

Sounds like stupid people, like you, are the ones destroying the country with your prognostications of doom and inability to plan beyond your nose.

After all, that was the problem with the shuttle. We fuck around in LEO for 3 decades and then...???? Ohh wait, then, nothing. We fuck around in LEO More. Sounds like a great "grand plan". That's how we started the space program, with a goal to go to the moon, a grand plan.