Shuttle - One and Done . . . .

[bl4ckfl4g]

Good! Privatize it!

 

[ichy]

not to mention that practically every time we get a new president we get a new direction for nasa. which really isn't appropriate for something with the time horizons that nasa must operate on.

Yeah. I remember that George Bush I had all kinds of ambitious plans for going to the Moon and Mars that never came close to being funded. The Clinton administration was apathetic about space, but funded the ISS in order to keep Russian rocket scientists employed and not selling their skills to places like Iran and North Korea. Bush II had the right idea with Constellation IMO but was't prepared to give it the money it needed, and Obama seems pretty apathetic. It slays me that the Chinese can launch people into space but in a month we won't be able to anymore.

 

[ichy]

Good! Privatize it!

Christ...

The shuttle was ALREADY privatized! It was built by private companies, and most of the operations work was done by United Space Alliance which was a contractor. For god's sake, learn to think beyond buzzwords.

 

[Trianon]

No detailed plan and probably not enough money. NASA is continuing to develop the Orion capsule that was originally intended for Constellation, but they don't have a rocket to launch it on. They're supposed to announce the development of a new heavy-lift rocket that builds on shuttle technology in the near future, but the money to do it all probably isn't there. Sadly I predict we'll get lots of Power Point presentations and little or no actual hardware.

Yep, Orion development still on schedule.

 

[gevorg]

Shuttle's retirement is long overdue, it served well and beyond what it was designed for, just like Mir.

 

[OlafSicky]

America should start to pay it's debt down not waste money on space. The shuttle program accomplished absolutely nothing and should have been cancelled a long time ago.

 

[ichy]

America should start to pay it's debt down not waist money on space.

You should start to work on improving your grammar and spelling.

 

[nobodyknows]

Blaming anything and everything on this Fool, Bobo, the Post Turtle, is NOT absurd ...... It's a good thing, and accurate.

Hey look, you said something stupid.

Gotta stick with what you're good at I guess.

He reminds me of the joke about the guy who went to the butcher shop looking for brains.

He asks the butcher, "Do you sell brains here?"

The butcher replies, "You're in luck, we specialize in brains here." and he takes him into a back room with bushel baskets full of brains They had regular brains for $5/LB, physician brains for $50/lb, rocket scientist brains for $100/lb, nuclear physicist brains for $200/lb, and marine brains for $1000/lb.

The guy tells the butcher, " I can see why nuclear physicist brains sell for $200/lb, but why do marine brains cost $1000/lb?"

The butcher gives him a dumb look and replies "Do you have any idea how many marines it takes to get a pound of brains?!?"

 

[ichy]

Shuttle's retirement is long overdue, it served well and beyond what it was designed for, just like Mir.

The shuttle was "designed" to satisfy a whole bunch of compromises and conflicting requirements. A horrifying example of how brilliant engineering talent was wasted on on something that was put together by committee. The problem is that we've got nothing to replace it with. A number of former astronauts (off the top of my head I can think of Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, Gene Cernan and Robert Crippen who've made very public statements) have said that the agency is completely directionless.

Edit: More high-profile criticism

http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/AS-Interview-Story-Musgrave.html

After flying for as long as it did, it really is time to move on to the next one. So I feel affection for it, I feel sentimental about it. But it’s time to move on. It turns out, though, we’re moving on to nothing.

 

[epidemis]

Nasa out, welfare in! A symptom of the times

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Christ...

The shuttle was ALREADY privatized! It was built by private companies, and most of the operations work was done by United Space Alliance which was a contractor. For god's sake, learn to think beyond buzzwords.

Taxpayers paid for it. It wasn't privatized just because contractors worked on it. It was fine at the time, but with our debt now, it is one of the things that should be cut.