Last Chance to see a Space Shuttle in Transit

Something greater will emerge?

It is fitting that they should all enter their golden years as the CVN 65 Enterprise is decommissioned.

There will never be a spacecraft as wondrous as the Shuttle, ever again. The technology that was developed through that program has paid back the investment of the American people 100 fold, just as the research provided by CVN 65 also goes unnoticed and unappreciated.

I weep for my country.

De-commissioning the fleet was a great evil done by Obama.

Witnessing the Launch of the Shuttle Atlantis

So much of life in the world is waiting, that
This day was no exception, so we waited
All morning long and into the afternoon.
I spent some of the time remembering
Dante, who did the voyage in the mind
Alone, with no more nor heavier machinery
Than the ghost of a girl giving him guidance;

And wondered if much was lost to gain all this
New world of engine and energy, where dream
Translates into deed. But when the thing went up
It was indeed impressive, as if hell
Itself opened to send its emissary
In search of heaven or "the unpeopled world"
(thus Dante of doomed Ulysses) "behind the sun."

So much of life in the world is memory
That the moment of the happening itself—
So much with noise and smoke and rising clear
To vanish at the limit of our vision
Into the light blue light of afternoon—
Appeared no more, against the void in aim,
Than the flare of a match in sunlight, quickly snuffed.

What yet may come of this? We cannot know.
Great things are promised, as the promised land
Promised to Moses that he would not see
But a distant sight of, though the children would.
The world is made of pictures of the world,
And the pictures change the world into another world
We cannot know, as we knew not this one.

Written by Howard Nemerov

Don't be so negative. The shuttle has facilitated the achievement of lots of awesome stuff.

But now its old and obsolete.

But do not worry your little Yanky heads. Us limeys have something in the works to carry the flame. Look up reaction engines. Now if we could only find enough money .......

Don't be so negative. The shuttle has facilitated the achievement of lots of awesome stuff.

But now its old and obsolete.

But do not worry your little Yanky heads. Us limeys have something in the works to carry the flame. Look up reaction engines. Now if we could only find enough money .......

No.

When the limeys can figure out how to land on another planet, maybe we'll send a few bucks your way.

When we heard Columbia go down, I actually saw a man walk outside and puke against a wall.

No flying brick was ever as beloved as she.

Saw it as it flew over Tucson a couple of weeks ago, in honor of Gabby Giffords.

[link to www.foxnews.com]

Peace,
12DnA
[link to uenc2012.blogspot.com]

That remains to be seen. The SLS is basically the DIRECT alternative to the Ares I&V (but at the block I stage closely resembles the Ares I&V earth orbit rendezvous strategy) and could facilitate a return to moon and beyond, but NASA has not really been given a clear direction of where they're going (near earth asteroids but not the moon? Orbit mars but not land on it? WTF?) and the proposed timeline and funding for SLS is kind of a joke - it wouldn't reach a matured stage for 18 years and wouldn't produce a steady stream of missions for 13 years, with only 1 manned mission every other year (an unmanned mission would be performed a few months before each manned mission with the block I booster putting an earth departure stage and lander in orbit, ala the original Ares V proposal).

In 5 years we could do a single unmanned circumlunar flyby test, and in 7-9 years do a pointless manned lunar orbit mission without a lander and a re-purposed Delta rocket upper stage (truly the only point of which is to keep people's interest so it doesn't get canned before the full earth departure stage with J-2X engines and lander are ready), but some records indicate that the full 130+ ton block II version of the booster will not be ready for at least 18 years. Manned missions with the block I booster will only start in earnest in about 13 years with 1 manned launch occurring every other year (the other year launching cargo such as an earth departure stage and lunar lander needed to support the manned mission).

Wow Space Shuttle Endeavour Final Mission - Los Angeles



Time-lapse video of Endeavour's transit from LAX to the California Space Center.

Actually I meant this one:

I went to see Atlantis being moved..it was incredible.

Glad you got to see it!

here's some pics..enjoy!

[link to s1290.beta.photobucket.com]

So...erm...how come it has all the flight characteristics of a geese?

Gee, this thread went well, 840 views in only 7 years...