still cant believe this is happening. end of the space age. more people out of work. thank youhttps://U.S.Gov't.

Obama is not the goverment...

i didnt say Obama, i saidhttps://U.Sgov't

Obama is the only one who shut it down....

but it takes congress via vote to have it officialy shut down.

It was not Obama's fault. You need to know that the bitter Republicans Are cutting everything, and they want Obama to look like a fool.

true true

Sometimes cuts need to be made. Spending won't help the economy, it's been tried before, and failed. Obama.. that's another mess altogether. there is an air of responsibility and authority that he seems to lack.. it's like we're are listening to a cheer leader, not a Commander in Chief.

Obama does not need help to do that. He is already has a Masters Degree in it.

But then, Right or Left, they are all the same - Politicians.

NASA was getting the shaft long before Obama.

Hear-here

They've gotten funding increases with Democratic presidents and big cuts with Republican ones.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipe.....ki/NASA_Budget

Sorry, President Bush was the one who signed the order to begin closing out the Space Shuttle Program. I know, it seems to be instinct with some people to blame President Obama automatically for things, but that was back in 2005 when the order was given to NASA to provide no more funding past the current STS-135.

We can agree though if it hadn't been run into the ground visa vie communistic approach (letting others build and fly) in the first place there would of never been any funding issues?

I find it ironic that the Russians were the first one to "sell tickets" aboard their ships....

Not letting others...

500 years before nasa built and designed, they're suppose to be using boeing and such.

It's okay hon. ^^ Hopefully by then we'll have a better financial situation, and the global political climate will be read for space exploration once more. All things come in time. :)

That they do... and hey the Chinese and the Europeans are still doing stuff

Made a journal on this. :\
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2511724/

The future is in the venture capitalists - Already a lot of smarter, cheaper, better designs out there, some have flown already. While NASA retools these guys have a lot of time to get it perfected.

ohman i wanted to fly the shuttle damit

I can't believe we stopped#It's the most important project we have.

I was glad I got to see it live on TV, at least. Always hoped I'd be able to see a shuttle launch live in person. Oh well. I'm sure there will be a lot more orbital and, hopefully, inter-planetary space vehicles to launch in my lifetime.

When I was in high school, I went on a trip to the Space Center. A buddy of mine had a grandfather who was a high up VP there and we saw stuff and had a VIP tour, something that no one else did, including a chance to sit in the Control Room. it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip!

It's sad, yes. But I think we're going to have a very bright and intuitive future with private space ventures.

So, is that Maxie or Max_Goof in the picture? :)

Maxie.

Thought so.

Indeed, it is a sad thing too hear ;^; Space travel seems so far away now.
Until next time at least.

still remember the launch of#was a bit traumazing to a kid [my class was watching it on tv - think the tv was turned off just after the explosition].

Space travel is happening commercially with Virgin I believe. I think the space port is being constructed in New Mexico. Granted it's not deep space but I think that companies will start to get involved with space again as Nasa refits itself.

Good luck and Godspeed.

And thus American's loose interest in the Finial Frontier.. Looks like it'll be up to the Europe or Asia to get to Mars first.

And we finally loose the space race by forfeit. NASA is likely to be nothing but a footnote in history soon. The government should at the very least leave one with spare part in orbit with the space station as a maintenance vehicle.

We can send John Glenn up to space as a senior citizen, maintain a fleet of reusable space shuttles, send men to the moon, land rovers on Mars (and Venus though that was a doozy), launch the Hubble telescope and countless satellites among other awesome things.

I just wonder what the future holds in store before were ready to head back to space and show the world why NASA was so cool in the first place

The space race is over and we lost as a planet IMHO

It might be less than 10 depending on how well development goes. It was cool getting to see the Orion test module when it made a stop in Austin.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?collection_id=15347&media_id=100276411

I, for one, wish there had been more work at the same time... that the budget for NASA had been what it COULD have been. I too got to see Enterprise roll out and the losses we'd endured....

But, always, there was the knowledge that those brave people died for a cause they deeply believed in... the hope for a better understanding tomorrow.

I may be 10 years before NASA is flying a new ship of their own, but only 2-3 years before an American craft is taking people to Orbit. I do wish that the shuttle was still flying then so there could be a proper handoff in orbit from one generation to the next with the Dragon. Something that has yet to happen for anyone vehicle in space. At least the next set of astronaughts will not be getting a lift from the Chinese.

http://www.spacex.com/updates.php

ill nover onder stand the us!!! thar scraping the shotel progrem too go too spaces paying 5 times more to ride on spaces craft that are in 5 times worce the shape;). nasa i know for a faked had a proto type too replaces thehttps://Shuttle.thayblody wall as fare as i know even bilt 1! the dezine was being tested in the 90's lol and wear from hwat i rember was going too be some bilt bye 2008 and inhttps://use.ieven have a toy thay mayed of the proto type lol.
thay shod test's of a nother proto type on the scifi chalen in 2002 agan was saped to be some bilt and in use bye 2010. and what haped too the flight to the moon projaked thay spoke of 8 or 9 years back?the new plans to use the moon to bild a fsilady to loch from to explor other part's ofhttps://space.noi am not joking thay from what i rember pland to go back to the moon bye 2011 or 2014 i forget the year.

If you are talking about the Vernturestar program it was canceled in 2001 due to a number of technical problems (couldn't keep the tanks from leaking) and severe cost over runs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oYI1CNaGrc
Now if they had kept on with the original Deltaclipper program and built the DC-Y instead of turning things over to the X-33 for political reasons.... Who knows?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzXcTFfV3Ls
There was also the X-38, but that was primarily an escape life-boat for the International Space Station, not something to launch people in. It would probably have gone up in the Shuttle cargo bay. I got to see the prototype of this under construction, but it never flew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEb9jpWV-g0

X-33 is the 1 i am refurring too it is a dezine from the 90'shttps://lol.andwhos kidng who!!! how in the hell hard is it to stop a fule leek?
thave not had that problem with the old shit thave bin using for how long?
jest reuse the old dezine and chang it to work on the new shit.
thay rembed me of that story the us spanding 10 mill to make a pan that works in space the russens jest used a pancel.
the mony thar paying the russens to pot pople in space ide thnak thay cod bild a old school shotel or 2 jesst like the 1's thay have or hears a wild idea fix the 1's thay have! the russen 1's are jest as old and crappy lol

Conventional tanks where too heavy to work with the design. To save weight they tried making an all composite 'valantine' shaped tank. As it was being developed they kept finding they needed more and more support structures between the tank and outer hull as the tank was structurally intigral to the airframe. The tank finally became just as heavy as if it had been made out of aluminum. And because of the strange shape it kept rupturing anyway. Composite technology at the time was just not up to the job.

thar is a brite idea;) we stop using the old K car all togather cose that new sport's car that was mant to be faster and chepper broke doun so instade we pay that russen cab driver no 1 likes cose he charges so much;)
he can take us too work;).it's ok hes cab is a cheep noke off of are old reliabell car and we can over look all the duck tape holding it togather.
remind me way it's bater too pay 5 times more too go to spaces in barey usbell spacecraft from a 3ed world supper power instadeof kipe using the crap we have and fix it or use the old dezine and jest bild more!!!it's not brok dont fix it.
thay if thay wanted too cod illbat have 5 new shotels bilt in like a year i dantkell too the old 1's;) jest mabe add AC and biger cup holder's;) and a dvd playerhttps://lol.mypoint is if it's not broke dont fix it.

this is a very sad fact is that there will not be another crew like them for many years. the dreams of many children are now crushed with the end of nasa.

private company can do space flight better and cheaper than the government i had problems with NASE after the first shuttle accient may be it better the government get out of the space race all to gather ?

iam a republican an consevitive guest it make me evil !

Sad to see something such as this die, I've been fascinated with the space shuttle program since I was younger and I've seen every single launch of one, I can go right out on my deck and watch the shuttle go up for about 9 minutes or so before its out of the atmosphere and I even get a lil bit of the sonic boom, quite emotional thing to see the very last one go up such good memories watching those things

for the love of peet. nasa is not dead!!! thal be traning and fireng people off in to space jest thal be hich hikig on shitty spaces craft noke off's of the us space progrem mayed bye russa and the french.
the us is jest using other cuntreys ships too get thar man in too space.canada's had a spaces progrem for how long and we dont have 1 roket lol

it is odd... being around for the end of this... but i am just glad that one other piece of canadian history is going up one last time... thats the Canadarm doing its last bit of work before she comes home and get put in a museum. *nods* maybe i'll get to see one in person then...

rember nasa was going to bild a loch fsilady in canada lol in cape bren of all placess;) emagen if thay did?
lol it's fisher man in space ;).
thaye have the canada arm on the frech spaces shotel's and i blevethe ruzzen 1's too.
if not i am schor thal add 1;)

maybe so.. but the last one with Nasa for some time just went up with atlantis. i hope it goes well up there

I've had this dream that I would see us land a man on MARS, just like I saw us land a man on the moon.

At this rate I'll be dead before it happens, or too old to remember the moon landing in the first place.

I'm not talking about the USA when I say us, I mean all of us on this rock.

Such a stupid choice...
Why stick with a reliable 'white van' service that can get stuff up and down, when we can just throw stuff into orbit a bit cheaper instead?
Whatever happened to the Aurora project?

Aw well, least theres private ventures that still want to push on.

Come to think of it, what is it with reaching a pinacle, then dropping back?
Look at what happened with the concorde, fastest passenger service in the world, and rather than update and maintain, or replace... scrap it.

There is some hope with the commercial sector. Space X is doing some amazing things and may even be able to put people up in as little as 3-5 years. Some other commercial ventures are also showing promise as well. The shuttle program had to end eventually, but the govt has mishandled how they shut down badly. Worse, congress is already trying to take even more money from NASA and just recently announced they want to kill the partially built James Webb Space Telescope. Means once Hubble stops working in 4-5 years, we have no space telescope that works in optical and certain infrared ranges. And nothing close to the power of hubble. James Webb was going to have ahttps://6.5meter mirror, compared to Hubbleshttps://2.4meter one. The plan was to use James Webb to check for signs of atmosphere, water and life on exoplanets, something Hubble can only just barely do on the largest planets. But now, no. Between cancellation of James Webb and the Terrestrial Planet Finder, we are going to be taking a back seat to Europe and maybe even China in the science realm as well as human spaceflight.

A sad state of affairs indeed!

Sadly, I see the private ventures as just little experiments and novelties. I don't think that we'll see a major, concerted effort to get people back up into space regularly or permanently until the very existence of our species is threatened. People naturally procrastinate until they have to do things or else.

Here is a list of what's coming up, and when things are expected to fly:

Dragon Capsule (SpaceX) - already flown once, planned two flights in 2011, including a docking mission to the ISS. No crew.
MPCV (Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle) (Lockheed) - Former Orion capsule, reconfigured for NASA. First flight in 2016.
CST-100 (Crew Space Transportation) (Boeing/Bigelow) - 7 man capsule, first manned flight 2015.
DreamChaser (Sierra Nevada) - HL-20 variant, lifted body similar to X-37B in use by USAF. Possible 2016 launch.

I happen to work for $We're_Building_The_CST-100, and I get a lot more info than I'm permitted to talk about. But this is all pretty much publicly available data.

Oh, and Rabbi, thanks for sending me this image. *chuckle*

Oh, image arrived yesterday afternoon, it's now sitting here near the computer. Next to the NASA commemorative medallion I was given at work, made from flown metal from all the Shuttles.

Even with your imagination, Rabbi-Tom, you (and your associates) get a better view of the final launch of a Space Shuttle than I was unable to see, 300 miles south of Cape Canaveral, due to the overcast skies of south Florida. Nevertheless, your "WCOTP" tribute to the end of an era was very moving indeed...

Damned sad, and damned stupid. You'd think they'd have a replacement in mind before they retire the shuttle.

So, what's the plan to get back to the space station? I hope they at least brought the team back before they shut the program down

Let's see... a couple of missions by the Russian Space Agency ferrying up crew and cargo, some European Space Agency modules ferrying up cargo, the SpaceX Dragon craft ferrying up cargo, Orbital Science's craft ferrying up cargo, and a few others...

And as I've pointed out earlier, the so-called replacement was never a replacement. Constellation was a Bush II program when he cancelled out the Space Shuttle, which had so many problems... so instead, we're going the commercial route.

In a way, I think it's about time. I'd just like to believe the commercial route would include good, solid, safety measures. I know NASA is government-run and that should scare anybody, but one of my best friends works for NASA and I know they hold to some damned strict guidelines.

I guess we'll wait and see.