The End of an Era

[Big Wallaby]

About two minutes late this morning, Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off for the last time, beginning the final mission of a legacy that began twelve days before I was born.

The commentator (the person you hear do the countdown on TV) was the same person who was in that job for the first launch of Atlantis, STS-51J, a classified DOD mission that took just four days, compared to the two-week missions we have seen in recent history.

The launch director was great. When he gave his final speech regarding the legacy of Atlantis shortly before launch, you could hear the restrained anger in his voice at the idea that this was ending.

But all good things must come to an end.

Looking forward, Richard Branson is on schedule to take dozens of people into space by the end of the year, at a comparatively low rate of $200,000, and he plans on lowering that to $20,000 in time, with apologies for the fact that it's such a high amount right now (but still low compared to several million to go with Space Adventures who has sent people both into space and even to the ISS, or SpaceX, which is still in development). Space Adventures is working with a Armadillo Aerospace to create safer, more cost efficient rockets that can get a tourist into suborbital space, and eventually they want to take someone around the moon for a cool $20,000,000. I don't know about you, but going around the moon, and being 40 miles away without touching it would be torture. For more on that, we could ask Jim Lovell, who circled the moon on TWO different missions.

A new space race is upon us, but this time it will be in the hands of people of influence, instead of (basically) two governments, starting it not because they want to explore, but because they want to beat the other to the Moon in a race to show who has the biggest rocket, or something like that. Now it is in the hands of three major companies, and I am sure that a fourth, fifth, tenth and twentieth are not far behind.

Let the race begin.

[BRWombat]

I watched the launch with a sad heart. I've followed the shuttle program since the early tests; was thrilled when the first (non-space only, sadly) shuttle was named Enterprise, and even got to see it in person a couple of times on the back of its 747; and have tuned in to as many launches as I could manage. I remember where I was for each of the shuttle disasters -- and even realized after the fact that I had heard with my own ears the sound caused by the breakup of Columbia.

To me, it's tragic and shortsighted that we have no replacement ready to go, and that once Atlantis lands, America effectively has no manned space program, for the first time in over 40 years.

[WEDFan]

to me, it's tragic and shortsighted that we have no replacement ready to go, and that once atlantis lands, america effectively has no manned space program, for the first time in over 40 years.

+1

[Big Wallaby]

To me, it's tragic and shortsighted that we have no replacement ready to go, and that once Atlantis lands, America effectively has no manned space program, for the first time in over 40 years.

I wasn't going to go there, because I didn't want to get into politics. But I will say this: When I was there for Endeavour's final launch, you could hear absolute disdain in the voices of anyone who was talking about the end, especially since they had already sent up a test of the next program, only to have it ended rather abruptly after spending the money to set up the infrastructure and launch a test vehicle and make it work.

[hobie16]

... was thrilled when the first (non-space only, sadly) shuttle was named Enterprise...

Interesting back story on the name. NASA planned on naming the first flying shuttle Enterprise but the Trekies went nuts and...

[Big Wallaby]

Originally, it was gonna be Space Shuttle Constitution, until the Trekkies went crazy and did a huge write-in campaign to the president, who cited liking the name anyway. So when Enterprise first rolled out,


Interesting side note, you can tell by looking at it that Enterprise was never designed for reentry. It has no tiles, just a Fiberglass body.

[Freak]

So the Enterprise never actually flew, right? It was sort of like the prototype?

[BRWombat]

So the Enterprise never actually flew, right? It was sort of like the prototype?

It flew, but not in space. It was carried aloft by a modified 747, then released at altitude and flown back for approach and landing.

[darph nader]

The Enterprise NCC 1701 was a Constitution class starship. The Constitution was NCC 1700. (I know,it's weird of me.)

[Goofyernmost]

It is hard to see how the US will ever be able to maintain any leadership in anything without the space program. When you look around you and realize that so many of the things that we have and take for granted today came about because of the space program.

The computer I'm using at this moment was a bi-product of the space program, micro-surgery, many foods we eat and how they are prepared all have a direct link to the technology demanded by the program. That's just naming a couple of things.

Yes, it is very short sighted of our government to let it go. Have a couple less wars and we can probably afford it again. (I say that knowing that one of our most impressive space accomplishments happened in the middle of the Vietnam War)

Maybe we can get some of the brain power that enables people to do space travel and hire those people on to see if they can get the Yeti moving again. Seems like it should be possible.