Who else watched the takeoff yesterday? I was glued to the t.v. for the thirty minutes prior to the launch, and I was kinda reminded of how, in elementary school, the whole school would turn on the t.v. to see shuttle launches.

It's sad, but I couldn't remember the last time I had watched a takeoff, but I could easily remember the disasters. But I guess that's somewhat natural. It's easier to remember the bad than the good sometimes. And as cheesy as it may sound in a Jerry Bruckheimer action movie kinda way, there was such an excitement element to it when the boosters ignited and the shuttle lifted off the platform.

And at one point, I almost didn't feel like watching it, thinking "eh, it's just going to go up into the sky. Nothing too exciting." Dang...am I glad I didn't listen to that voice.

Ah...what a great way to celebrate the 4th.

Weird. I didn't even know about it.

The shuttle is retarding the development of our space exploration program...

It was pretty cool, but they really need to get something new going we've been using these freaking shuttles for 25 years now. Too bad NASA doesn't get the money they need .

Twenty five years and have the shuttles made any really worthwhile discoveries? They always talk about all their little experiments that they do up there, but it seems that the only groundbreaking discoveries lately have been results of unmanned missions. Is the shuttle program really something that NASA should still be investing so much time and money in?

NASA is not what it used to be. America has lost its interest in space, and consequently, NASA has slipped into routine puttering about, and stopped doing anything interesting.

Sending a probe to Titan was cool, and the Mars missions are great, when they don't crash... but it's honestly time we started doing some exciting stuff again. What about another manned lunar mission? What about a manned MARS mission?!

quote:

Originally posted by titaniumdoughnut:
NASA is not what it used to be. America has lost its interest in space, and consequently, NASA has slipped into routine puttering about, and stopped doing anything interesting.

Sending a probe to Titan was cool, and the Mars missions are great, when they don't crash... but it's honestly time we started doing some exciting stuff again. What about another manned lunar mission? What about a manned MARS mission?!

I couldn't agree more. I had a discussion with a friend this weekend about this, and I asked why don't we go to the moon again (yeah yeah...I know...the whole conspiracy and all about not going there...). Yeah, we've been there, done that, but it could be just the excitment the new generations need. The only video we have of man on the moon is over 30 years old. Not to say that putting a man on the moon again will be revolutionary, but again, I think it would help jumpstart interest.

The other thought that I had was that perhaps some of the blame for lack of interest in the space program is actually in society. We aren't getting enough "instant gratification" by space probes and shuttle experiments. We want immediate results. When NASA talks about a mission to Mars, we don't want to hear that it will take us 6 years to get there...we want the colony now. We want to be able to SEE it being done now. But, that was a quick thought that I had ... I could be completely off base.

Whatever the case may be, yeah, NASA needs to do something other than the shuttle experiments and launching probes. Both have a good deal of merit, but they don't generate the interest that is needed to support the program.

I definitely don't think the shuttle program is completely retarding NASA's progress, as they have a use and will continue to have a use as long as we have orbiting stations that need supplies. But, I will agree that they have met their use, and something new needs to be developed if we are going to get further out there (and who knows? maybe it is being developed...maybe we are going to go blow up some asteroids with it or something...).

I think the shuttles are kinda like your old beat up POS car...you've grown so attached to it, that you'll keep funneling money into it for repairs even when you know you should move on to something better, despite the higher price tag.

quote:

I had a discussion with a friend this weekend about this, and I asked why don't we go to the moon again (yeah yeah...I know...the whole conspiracy and all about not going there...). Yeah,

I agree that would be awesome, even if they accomplished nothing it would be worth it.

Word on the street/in yesterday's newspaper is that we (humans) are going to the moon again in 2018!
Hopefully I'm still alive. Hell, maybe I'll even go.

Uh, isn't China going there in two or three years?

2018 is lame. They should theoretically be able to replicate the Apollo hardware and go in year or two - oh, wait, NASA probably can't even achieve the safety record they had in the '70s now.