J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

So, thats it, all finished this year, end of an era really, I think really we have taken it for granted for a long time, it was an icon of the late seventies and early eighties and then largely ignored except for when it exploded.

So many memories for people of my sort of age (40), wathing the first launch in Mr Bury's class (best teacher ever and also RIP) on a grainy 12 inch black and white portable. Me and My mate Chris aged 8 or 9 charging round on our own shuttle missions with our Corgi toy ones, the one with the Satellite in the back. Being stood Awe Struck in Heald Green watching the Shuttle come into Manchester Airport sat atop a 747, now a 747 is itself a pretty impressive sight even now so seeing that was jaw dropping.

The buzz about the shuttle back them was pretty big, Moonraker kind of summed up what a big deal it was, I remember playing Space Shuttle by Activision on my Commodore 64 and never managing to understand what I was meant to do.

Was just reading the Wikipedia entry regarding the 747 transport planes, made me laugh as it says on the top of the 747, "Place Orbiter here, Black side down"

It is funny, have kind of ignored it for years, but realising it is going makes me quite sad really.

dpb

Entering a new age , cant see China being as intrested ?

i remember the issue with the tiles burning up and what a worry that was for the guys in charge

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

I too share that sadness. I always wanted to see a space shuttle blast off, now I never will

I often wonder how far mankind will get in terms of exploration and technology. Will there ever be limits? Will we ever fly across the stars? Well, if there is no desire to even try, then I guess the answer to those questions is no...

fast bloke

I think there is desire.... It just costs a shed load to repeat what you have already done, and the shuttle isn't going to make any new advances. Even if they could work out how to launch the shuttle from a zero G launch platform, allowing it to travel across the cosmos much much quicker than it currently does, it would be a one way ticket. Would you put you name down for a quick tour of Mars, Saturn, Uranus and then wait out until you die of old age?

Flathead

Got some pics of it landing at RAF Fairford on top of a 747 about 30 years ago awesome sight. Fairford was also a emergency landing site due to the lenth of the runway if things went wrong.

Will

What, no more space missions?

fast bloke

I always wondered about alternative landing sites 'if things went wrong'. What could have led to an aborted mission that wouldn't have vaporised all those inside?

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

my dad has this on cini film!

I too always wanted to see a blast off and missed one by 2days when I was in Florida.

They will be back - like a rash

Markus

If you view the launch blog it makes mention of stages where if X happens then they'll still be able to reach one of the abort sites, and I'm pretty sure one one of the things mentioned is "Shuttle is at Y phase, meaning if only one engine remained, they could still make it to the alternate landing site", so that'd be one non-catastrophic abort scenario.

Have a read of this for more info.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

End of a Era

But then the current president doesn't really have much care for sentiments.

Maybe the most ignorant US president as of yet (and the most dissapointing).

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Similar to Glasgow to London on a coach then !

urban

iTrader: (1)

Not with the shuttle anyway.

I believe that a shuttle launch costs around $300,000,000

Bonehead

Agreed, but then they were setting him up to be some sort of 2nd coming

sparkykev

Except for April 19th with Endeavour and June 28th Atlantis

urban

iTrader: (1)

Yes OK, I forgot that there are two more left to go.

I once saw a night time launch - amazing sight, albeit I was quite far away from the launch site.

Tidgy

is this the end of manned space exploration? there talkign about 2016 till its replaced, but thats the polititions, NASA are saying it will be longer than that

"None of the design options studied thus far appeared to be affordable in our present fiscal conditions, based upon existing cost models, historical data, and traditional acquisition approaches," said a Nasa report to lawmakers.



so other than going up and back to the ISS looks like thats it for space