Space Shuttle Discovery becomes Smithsonian property on April 19th

[John@AutoAgenda]

This seriously makes me so sad to see the end of an era here. With all the waste in money this administration has squandered, the last thing I wanted to see was this program being shut down. I honestly can't belive that the USA is no longer a major player in the space program and if we want to go up we have to pay the Russians :(

[Overflow]

Originally Posted by John@AutoAgenda

This seriously makes me so sad to see the end of an era here. With all the waste in money this administration has squandered, the last thing I wanted to see was this program being shut down. I honestly can't belive that the USA is no longer a major player in the space program and if we want to go up we have to pay the Russians :(

We never used the shuttles to their full potential either. Each shuttle was capable of 100 missions. The most flew on a single orbiter was 39. Discovery was capable of 61 more flights. It's not even middle-aged yet! I feel like we didn't use what we had to its full potential, and now it's gone.

They say the major reason they retired the shuttle was because of the Challenger and Columbia disaster. What's truly sad about this is that both the problems that caused those ships to break apart could've been easily fixed if NASA paid more attention.

If NASA would've scrubbed the launch on January 28th, 1986 like Thiokol Corporation said to, Challenger would've never broke apart due to the boosters.

If NASA would've allowed the astronauts to do a space walk and evaluate the damage on Columbia in 2003, they would've seen the gapping hole in the wing and NASA could've sent up another shuttle and rescued the astronauts and possible fixed the problem. If not, then Columbia would have broken up, but we wouldn't have lost 7 astonauts in the process.

[Overflow]

For those of you who can't watch any of the ceremony, here is two webcams from inside the space hangar at the Smithsonian.

Tomorrow tune in to watch Enterprise and Discovery switch places.

http://airandspace.si.edu/collection...ry/webcams.cfm


Also..

Enterprise during it's last day in the Smithsonian.

[popeye705]

Originally Posted by Overflow

Would you mind posting them?

[SpectroBR]

Originally Posted by Overflow

Awesome! You can even see the T-38 escort.

if you didn't mention, I would never have seen it LOL

now I have to go back at Air & Space Museum. loved to see the Enterprise, definitely one of the highlights together with the Enola Gay, the SR-71 Blackbird and the Concorde.

[Overflow]

Originally Posted by popeye705

Awesome pictures!

Originally Posted by SpectroBR

if you didn't mention, I would never have seen it LOL

now I have to go back at Air & Space Museum. loved to see the Enterprise, definitely one of the highlights together with the Enola Gay, the SR-71 Blackbird and the Concorde.

I can't wait to go to the Smithsonian to see Discovery.

[2001ragtop]

Too bad we aren't allowed to view any of the real spaceships used in the real space program.

[mastertypodemon]

Originally Posted by John@AutoAgenda

This seriously makes me so sad to see the end of an era here. With all the waste in money this administration has squandered, the last thing I wanted to see was this program being shut down. I honestly can't belive that the USA is no longer a major player in the space program and if we want to go up we have to pay the Russians :(

For those that don't know - it was the previous administration that signed the orders to shut down the shuttle program. The current administration actually authorized more launches.

Previous Aministration
Current Administration

Also - it's cheaper to hitch a ride. Kennedy Space Center states that it's averages about $450 million to launch a shuttle, whereas most reports state that it'll be around $60 million to hitch rides. Besides, it's not like we haven't sent Americans on Russian modules before (and vice versa).

[Overflow]

Today's the day. 6 more hours until Discovery is transferred.

[IrocJack]

What are they doing with the other shuttle in there? I was there about 5 yrs ago and saw it, wow that thing is huge.

[Globemaster]

Originally Posted by mastertypodemon

*cough*houston*cough*

This is where it should have went not NY or anywhere else!

[Overflow]

Originally Posted by IrocJack

What are they doing with the other shuttle in there? I was there about 5 yrs ago and saw it, wow that thing is huge.

Its being moved to New York on Monday.

[ROBOSSRS]

I have since a young lad (now 56 yrs old) been disappointed in our space program. When I was young and uninformed I thought all our missions were going to the moon. Then one day the officially announced we landed on the moon. That was tough for the little science fiction kid to think we were just orbiting the earth ! I really never paid much attention to the shuttle program and now I found out the Enterprise, a big name in science fiction never went into orbit, that is sacrilege ! Basically people gave up their lives to orbit the Earth and hang out in a space station. What happened to seek out new life and new civilizations ? Maybe some American entrepreneur will get us on track again. This is truly a sad day.

[Overflow]

Enterprise had been considered to become an orbiter after the Challenger disaster, but they made Endeavour instead.

I think the Space Shuttle program was our most successful space program yet.