final space shuttle launch tomorrow, July 8 2011

I like the infographic. One of the best representation of the five different shuttles and their missions I've seen.
 
Lucky bastard Pitz is already in Florida to see it! Hope for his sake that it launches on schedule.

Unfortunately I'll be in class at 11:30 AM EDT (the launch time, actually it's a few minutes earlier) so I won't be seeing it live... but GODSPEED
 
Good!

Now the ESA can hijack the ISS with armed forces and build it into an orbital laser platform and use it to destroy all major non-European capitals of the world!

On a serious note, I feel kind of sad about this but it was inevitable I guess given that the shuttles were getting on in age.
 
Kinda silly seeing as they won't have a replacement for years.
 
ríomhaire said:
Kinda silly seeing as they won't have a replacement for years.
Click to expand...

That's definitely what concerns me. Not the retirement of the shuttles -- they are old and have done their job and 30 years of service is a long time -- but that there is no solid replacement in sight. The USA no longer has manned space flight capability for the decade while China and Russia do.
 
At least they will save billions a year not launching anything. It's a little under 500 mil a launch and that can be push in to developing whatever the hell they're doing instead of launching the big ol tubs.
 
Thanks for the vid. I didn't remember until noon, and figured I was too late.

Hope NASA gets some more funding. I was at a seminar given by a NASA guy, working on satellites for monitoring... climate change? air quality? something like that. He briefly mentioned their budget woes during Q&A. Sad.
 
Looks like we'll be mooching rides off of the Russians for much of this decade at the least. I wonder who really won the Space Race in the end. A

Also, the Chinese are going to be launching their next men up pretty soon and there's talks of planning their own space station.
 
Jerry_111 said:
Looks like we'll be mooching rides off of the Russians for much of this decade at the least. I wonder who really won the Space Race in the end. A

Also, the Chinese are going to be launching their next men up pretty soon and there's talks of planning their own space station.
Click to expand...

We did. The cold war is over. We got to the moon first. There's no race anymore.

Hopefully Russia doesn't become a dick about SpaceX going to the ISS. I want to see that shit work and work soon.
 
I'm not unhappy about the end of the shuttle program, it was getting to be that time... but it I am sad that NASA suffers so much during tough financial times like these. I think space exploration is a vital long-term investment.

Sad that I didn't get to see it live, but it's epic watching the video anyway. Looking forward to hearing from Pitz about it, maybe he has some video / pics to share :D
 
Sucks that it was so cloudy. Pitz... you should have invested in a tripod...
 
StarBob said:
Sucks that it was so coudy. Pitz... you should have invested in a tripod...
Click to expand...

I woulda if I knew I was going to be on the Causeway. I figured I'd be fighting shoulder to shoulder with everybody in the public spots.

Now for my story of the day.

A friend I went with picked up tickets to the Causeway, but kept it as a surprise for me. . Well, the NASA rented buses picked us up at 2:00 AM. I'm used to going to bed then CENTRAL time...so needless to say, I stayed up. Got to the bus, loaded and took off. Noticed we were going the wrong way (to Tampa!!). They turned around and headed for the Kennedy Visitors Center. Then we passed the Visitors Center....about 5 minutes of driving later, we turned around. After getting off, they told us to be back at the bus BY 5:00! They made that clear as hell. Poke around, take some pictures and eat a Hotdog (Worst idea ever). Stand in line for the buses. Well, the organization of this part went to hell.

Nobody REALLY knows where to go. So we're standing shoulder to shoulder just waiting. At around 6:30 we finally start to move the line to board. The line takes us through the tour at least, so it was nice...but I was already hot, sweaty, feeling sick and TIIRREED. We get on the bus and we end up at the Causeway at 9:00 AM.

Then came the most amazing sight I could ever imagine. Watching the shuttle take off....the thought still gives me nerdchills. So many people were crying as well. I don't judge, a tear came to my eye as well.

The ride back to Orlando was hell. It was estimated 4+ hours. Very stop and go. Well, the bus driver decides to detour. I look at my phone, loaded up GPS and holy shit, we are way north of Orlando. One of the passengers gets a call from the other bus, they had arrived and dropped off people about an hour prior. So, it took them an hour and a half the normal route. Ours took 4-5 hours. Needless to say, I passed the hell out when I finally laid in my bed.
 
Cool video Pitz, neat to hear how excited everyone was.

Now here's Sagan with some words.

 
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