Cancellation of the Space Shuttle Program - Shameful !!

[Donamy]

When Barak Obama was elected president, the new first lady said it was the first time, she was not ashamed of her country. Well, with the cancellation of the space shuttle program, it is the first time that I've been ashamed of it. All three ships, still have many years of productive service left in them. It wasn't built just to construct the ISS. It was built to haul stuff to space. Ok, the station is built, now they should be used to haul stuff for a moon base. It just doesn't make sense to me. A bad time for the USA. IMHO

 

[Eli13]

Yeah, and lets not forget that the ISS can *still* be expanded, though i doubt it. Plus they really do have so much service left in them. Mind they stay properly maintained. But its about the money to most politicians. And well it's not cheap to launch our shuttle. I hate to see them go also.

 

[Donamy]

The return from investment and the creation of jobs (especially in this economy), far outway the cost. Plus the motivational aspects for the future.

 

[Urwumpe]

The Space shuttle program was long overdue for replacement, it was just a flight prototype after all, nothing you would call a mature production vehicle.

Still sad that the STS is already the end of space planes. It was way ahead of its time, despite being build from parts that had already been obsolete at the time of the design decision.

 

[fireballs619]

I'm not too upset at the cancellation of the program, because I look at as opening up the way for better manned missions, such as to the moon, or, dare I say it, mars. You can use a horse and buggy, but sooner or later, upgrading to the car is going to be the best choice. Same thing here.

 

[Yoda]

I voted for Obama hoping he was the one that would bring about change in this country.
I am deeply dissapointed in his accomplishments over the last few years an the general lack of a spine he has shown to have.

The shuttle is going out on top of it's abilities with many usefull years left in it....... what a crying shame !!!
What a waste; our government should be ashamed of their actions (or rather in-actions )

It's hard for me to imagine that no longer will it be easy for our kids (including mine) to dream of becoming astronauts since our country lacks the balls to commit to a manned space program in favor of 2 wars that nobody needs, have no purpose and suck the life out of our economy.

We have our priorities screwed up so bad we can't even see the light at the end of the tunnel anymore.

Now we have to "ride bitch" with the russians ????
Wtf........
No offense but that an outrage for a country that had the most advanced space program and was able to send people to the moon.

It turns my stomach even thinking about seeing these wonderfull vehicle's packed away in a museum somewhere as a reminder of what we once were capabel of as a nation.......

Shame on our government and our great leader, shame on NASA !!

 

[insanity]

While the shuttles served magnificently, STS is outdated and our reliance on it is the reason why we have no new architecture in place. Also, the jobs line is kind of bogus, considering the private companies who are building and designing the next generation of manned rockets.

And for what it's worth, I'm still not convinced manned spaceflight is useful anymore.

 

[FADEC]

NASA seems to be in a dead end even in case the Shuttle would continue to fly. I mean, there are no serious plans for a next logical step. The Space Shuttle actually has no assignment anymore once the ISS is finished. The Hubble replacement is underway, and there is no market for launching payloads into orbit with the Shuttle I think. Nobody really wants to pay for it.

Will NASA ever be able to build and operate something that doesn't cost more than a billion for one launch (and that does not just create lots of jobs while it never reaches the launch pad, like Constellation)?

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Not only is it a bad time for the USA, it's a bad time for the whole world, IMHO.

For me, the Shuttle's retirement isn't the big issue. The big issue is NASA's complete lack of a sensible, viable path for the future. People would be far more willing to accept the Shuttle's retirement if NASA had that.

The Shuttle's retirement is just one more step in the global regression of mankind's capabilities. In 30 years time, people are going to look back to our time and see it as a period in which we collectively stopped dreaming of the future, in order to concentrate on our own petty squabbles and in-fighting.

 

[T.Neo]

Although I can say that I hate nothing more than seeing these vehicles flying for the last time, unfortunately I can see no way out of the end of the shuttle program, and for many reasons that are quite logical.

-The chance of LOCV is high enough to make an extension unwanted.

-The costs are too high, they may come back into the economy in the workforce, etc, but at the end of the day, that is government money and it needs to be rationed.

-The station, which has been the primary goal for STS for the last, 6, 7 years, is nearing completion.

-Vehicles are emerging that can offer the cargo capability of the Shuttle without the added cost and risk.

-Constructing a moon program with STS would be extremely costly due to the launch and program costs, as well as the need to create extra infrastructure that doesn't exist yet. Operating and constructing infrastructure that is shuttle-less from the beginning, would probably be far more efficient.

-There are only three vehicles, they can only cope with so much demand.

-The shuttle really failed at its goal, which was providing cheap and regular access to space... and sadly, it failed miserably at it. All the 70s moon program proposals, etc, relied on an idealised shuttle, not the realised shuttle. The shuttle fleet as they are in reality, today, couldn't achieve those tasks set out for them in the 1970s- at the very most, they wouldn't be able to achieve them well.

-Do we really want/need a moon base?

It really, really breaks my heart to see the program end. I am no American, so it does not have those patriotic connotations for me, but it is still sad.

It will be a sad day when we have no "real spaceship", and spaceflight is relegated to the days of capsules and evolved ICBMs, with the beautiful shuttles relegated to museum pieces, but unfortunately, this is the only plausible future right now...

Maybe one day we will have a similar vehicle, and hopefully this time it will work as promised. But not today, unfortunately, as the way things play out is the way they are.



EDIT:

Still sad that the STS is already the end of space planes. It was way ahead of its time, despite being build from parts that had already been obsolete at the time of the design decision.

Yeah... this "similar vehicle" will probably be a fat cone-shaped... thing, trying vainly to achieve the asthetic of 1950s Buck Rogers VTOVL concepts, while our pretty spaceplanes go the way of airships, because a bunch of guys wanted their flight prototype to operate like an operational vehicle after a quarter of a century of technological proficiency...

 

[deltawing777]

And for what it's worth, I'm still not convinced manned spaceflight is useful anymore.

Yep and you work for the US senate or something to do with it right? Unfortunately this is the belief of most in the current administration. Sad time in America if you ask me. :thumbsdown:

 

[insanity]

Sad time in America if you ask me. :thumbsdown:

So spending money on poverty assistance and insuring that every American has health care=a waste of your tax dollars, but spending money to put a human on a rocket so they can plant a flag and take some rock samples is important enough that if we don't do it it's a sad time for America?

 

[diogom]

Well, if the Shuttle has no purpose anymore, take me into space in it. :lol:
One one way, I agree that it's old, is loosing reasons to fly, andis expensive, but on the other hand, the Shuttle has become a symbol of the US. Something they have become really proud of, and now they are ending it, without even having a replacement.

 

[FADEC]

The Space Shuttle retirement is just one more step in the global regression of mankind's capabilities. In 30 years time, people are going to look back to our time and see it as a period in which we collectively stopped dreaming of the future, in order to concentrate on our own petty squabbles and in-fighting.

I wouldn't see it that pessimistic. I think we actually have better capabilities than ever before in history. The ISS is a huge step forward. Not only in space but also on the ground (politically). The Boeing 787 also is a very nice new machine. And there are much more achievements beside space flight and aviation.

I think our technological progress is as fast and as amazing as never before. We are just used to it today.

 

[Urwumpe]

LOL...many years of service left... seriously: you could maybe have had many more years, but the design number of missions was already exceeded. You could have only increased the costs per mission, like the costs per hour of mission of a B-52 is already absurdly high.

Any extension of the life time since 2000 on was already gambling with the material. The Shuttles had been designed for about 50 flights each, most are around this now, because of the lower flight rates as planned.

The problem is not that the Space Shuttle program has to end...everything dies. It is natural. It is the lack of a real successor, a step forward, that is missing. If you think Apollo on steroids or SpaceX Dragon will be that evolution, you are wrong, these are all only limiting what we can actually do in space.

A capsule can travel further into space as the Shuttle, because it has a better mass ratio without the wings and heatshield, but: It also offers much less space for work in space. A capsule has no payload bay, no robot arm. Everything that the shuttle made great, has to come from something else for a capsule. Like a space station. Or a huge interplanetary spacecraft.

And what do you need for really doing great assembly work in space? A Space Shuttle. Sad but true... Likely we will just orbit for much less money in LEO with the capsules and do even less, because the limited capability will reduce the capsules to pure space station taxis. Because the Congress will cut funding even more, when less work can be done in space.

 

[Donamy]

So spending money on poverty assistance and insuring that every American has health care=a waste of your tax dollars, but spending money to put a human on a rocket so they can plant a flag and take some rock samples is important enough that if we don't do it it's a sad time for America?

That sounds like an unfair statement to me. The shuttle program had nothing to with planting flags, it was about science and the betterment of our people.

 

[T.Neo]

Woah there, don't come crying because of a few extra billions spent on spaceflight, when your country is spending billions a year performing pointlessly motivated military activities.

The reason there is poverty, and there are health care problems, and there is a recession, is- surprise surprise- not because a few extra billions are spent on spaceflight. It is because of bad management and a bad climate and bad setups.

You're supposed to get rid of those first, so that things can function as best as they possibly can. NASA's budget? Are you going to eradicate poverty with 17 billion dollars a year? Are you going to end the global recession with 17 billion dollars a year? No? Of course you aren't.

EDIT:

If you think Apollo on steroids or SpaceX Dragon will be that evolution, you are wrong, these are all only limiting what we can actually do in space.

A capsule can travel further into space as the Shuttle, because it has a better mass ratio without the wings and heatshield, but: It also offers much less space for work in space. A capsule has no payload bay, no robot arm. Everything that the shuttle made great, has to come from something else for a capsule. Like a space station. Or a huge interplanetary spacecraft.

And what do you need for really doing great assembly work in space? A Space Shuttle. Sad but true...

Amen to all three...

 

[FADEC]

Woah there, don't come crying because of a few extra billions spent on spaceflight, when your country is spending billions a year performing pointlessly motivated military activities.

/signed

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

So spending money on poverty assistance and insuring that every American has health care=a waste of your tax dollars, but spending money to put a human on a rocket so they can plant a flag and take some rock samples is important enough that if we don't do it it's a sad time for America?

My opinion is that both are worth it. We need to spend on both. NASA's human spaceflight budget would barely make a dent into America's public services budget, so I don't see how cancelling human spaceflight would magically solve all these issues.

Of course our terrestrial matters are important, but nobody (at least, not me) wants to live in a society where we just chug along on our own insignificant path with no collective plan or vision for the future.

Spending money on poverty assistance etc. will keep people alive - but having programs such as the Space Shuttle lets people live, and dream, and strive for the future. Ultimately, that is what makes a society successful. A lot of people are criticizing India right now for spending on their human spaceflight program, but I don't - because India realise that the way to get out of poverty isn't just to hand-out money, the way to get out of poverty is to invest in the future, and create demand for an educated population.

However, I fear the above opinions are dying out. Most kids these days seem to be perfectly contented with shopping being the primary purpose of their lives.

 

[Ark]

I'm fine with the Shuttle coming to an end, it represents 30 years of stagnant space development on our part. My only issue is with the lack of a clear successor and plan for the future. I'm not comfortable with retiring our only access to space when nobody has a freakin' clue whats going to replace it. I think we have the means to do a lot better than the Shuttle, both in safety and in capability. But the powers that be need to stop collectively acting like idiot children and make a decision so NASA can get on about the business of making it happen.