The Final Countdown

[Gerard]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shutt ... #backtoTop

[h2opunk1822]

Dad and I are gonna be heading down to see STS-128 in aug, ive seen a few launches when i was living down in FLA.. but dont want to miss one of the last if not the last night shuttle launch.. its gonna be a sad end of an era.. orion or whatever its called meh, just not the same effect

[T-Bird76]

The real tragedy is we are going to rely on the Russians to provide us lift into space, this is just sad. I do find one thing very ironic, if you recall the movie 2010 The year we make contact. The U.S was at odds with Soviets/Russians and we had to rely on them in that movie. The comparison to present day events is rather similar, we are entering another Cold War with the Russians and they are the ones who are providing us life into space. Very odd coincidence...

We should have another vehicle ready to go to replace the shuttle but sadly we don't and this is nothing short of a failure on our space program.

[ChrisW]

The link is broken. You can thank Congress for slashing NASA's budget. Cuts to NASA's budget by the hand of Congress since 1994 total up to just under $1 billion, five of which were under a Republican-led Congress:

- $553.8 million in fiscal 1995
- $155.5 million in fiscal 1996
- $131.7 million in fiscal 1997
- $61 million in fiscal 1998
- $51.3 million in fiscal 2000
- $10.8 million in fiscal 2004

Additionally, the ISS funding runs out in 2016 and there are already talks of DE-ORBITING the space station when funding runs out:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/ ... 2009-07-13

President Obama, on the other hand, has proposed a $18.7 billion budget for NASA, $2.4 billion more than the 2008 budget. Personally, I don't think we're spending nearly enough on space exploration.

[hiss srq]

The link is broken. You can thank Congress for slashing NASA's budget. Cuts to NASA's budget by the hand of Congress since 1994 total up to just under $1 billion, five of which were under a Republican-led Congress:

- $553.8 million in fiscal 1995
- $155.5 million in fiscal 1996
- $131.7 million in fiscal 1997
- $61 million in fiscal 1998
- $51.3 million in fiscal 2000
- $10.8 million in fiscal 2004

Additionally, the ISS funding runs out in 2016 and there are already talks of DE-ORBITING the space station when funding runs out:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/ ... 2009-07-13

President Obama, on the other hand, has proposed a $18.7 billion budget for NASA, $2.4 billion more than the 2008 budget. Personally, I don't think we're spending nearly enough on space exploration.

Why not try avoiding shaded political hits and sticking to the topic at hand.

On track here. It is a shame if this is to be the last of the STS flights. Honestly, I think that the STS has a bad rap and is still very important and useful to our nation and far and by our celestial presence. One must take risks and sometimes great risks to leap furthur into the bounds of possibility and unfortuneately society forgets this. America was built on risk. I think the deal was sealed when Columbia broke up because certain members of media and congress blamed NASA for playing loose.

[T-Bird76]

Why not try avoiding shaded political hits and sticking to the topic at hand.

On track here. It is a shame if this is to be the last of the STS flights. Honestly, I think that the STS has a bad rap and is still very important and useful to our nation and far and by our celestial presence. One must take risks and sometimes great risks to leap furthur into the bounds of possibility and unfortuneately society forgets this. America was built on risk. I think the deal was sealed when Columbia broke up because certain members of media and congress blamed NASA for playing loose.

I agree with Chris, the GOP led the cuts...so its not cheap political hit. How did the shuttle advance our space program? It didn't..we went backwards with the shuttle. We haven't been back to the moon, we haven't tried reaching for Mars...all we did was put Satellites in the Shuttle's cargo bay and brought them into space and killed a decent number of people along the way in vain. The shuttle is nothing more then an expensive pickup truck.

Space has infinite possibilities and we have the technology to use space to our advantage. We are throwing billions at producing green energy down here on earth when we can be doing it in space. The best solution to our energy problem is to build solar panels in space, convert the solar energy to microwave energy and send it down to stations on earth that will convert it back to electric. The military has been experimenting with this for years now.

[ChrisW]

Why not try avoiding shaded political hits and sticking to the topic at hand.

It's not a shaded political hit, it's called a fact (something a number of Americans seem to view as a novelty in recent times). NASA's budget (not to mention they're lack of vision as a result of the cuts) is very much on topic here.