APOD: A Last Landing for Space Shuttle... (2011 Jun 07)

[APOD Robot]

A Last Landing for Space Shuttle Endeavour

Explanation: Space shuttle Endeavour is home to stay. In a rare night landing last week, Endeavour glided onto a runway in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA completing a 16-day mission that included a visit to the International Space Station (ISS). All told, space shuttle Endeavour flew 25 flights since being deployed by NASA in 1992, spending a total of 299 days in space. Endeavour's next mission will be a stationary one in the California Science Center. Even as Endeavour was landing, the space shuttle Atlantis was being rolled out in preparation for the last mission of any Space Shuttle, a mission currently scheduled to begin on July 8.

<< Previous APOD

Discuss Any APOD

Next APOD >>

[/b]

[epawzrd@juno.com]

How do I go about getting the daily "Astronomy Picture of the Day" explanation to appear on my screen as part of my now daily changing wallpaper?

-A puzzeled comp. user.........................................

[bystander]

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=23837

[nstahl]

The link that should bring us from yesterday's APOD directly to today's doesn't work.

[agulesin]

"Atlantis was being rolled out in" is a broken link... http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110608.html

What I'm wondering is this: Will the last shuttle mission bring back all the astronauts and equipment (?) from the ISS? If not, how will they get home at the end of their mission? In which case, the last shuttle mission will also be the end of the ISS?

[owlice]

"Atlantis was being rolled out in" is a broken link... http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110608.html

This link is to tomorrow's APOD, which is perhaps a hint, hmm? So not a broken link; just not an active link yet.

The link that should bring us from yesterday's APOD directly to today's doesn't work.

This one does need fixing; I've drop the editor a line.
~~~~~

This image makes me a bit sad. The end of Endeavour's work.

[orin stepanek]

The space shuttle program has been very successful; I wish it wouldn't end.

[Guest]

...scheduled to BEGIN [not being] on July 8.

[neufer]

The space shuttle program has been very successful; I wish it wouldn't end.

The space shuttle program has been very expensive for the amount of science
it has produced (both in terms of lives & treasure); I'm glad it will end.

• ________ Scientific American JUNE 1960
  
  "Putting a man in space is a stunt: the man can do no more
  than an instrument, in fact can do less." So said Vannevar Bush,
  chairman of the Board of Governors of the Massachusetts Institute of
  Technology, in a statement to the House Committee on Science and
  Astronautics. "ŒThere are far more serious things to do than to indulge
  in stunts. As yet the American people do not understand the
  distinctions, and we in this country are prone to rush, for a time, at
  any new thing. I do not discard completely the value of demonstrating
  to the world our skills. Nor do I undervalue the effect on morale of
  the spectacular. But the present hullabaloo on the propaganda
  aspects of the program leaves me entirely cool."

[moonstruck]

Congratulations to the shuttle crew, NASA and the United States of America.

[BMAONE23]

"Atlantis was being rolled out in" is a broken link... http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110608.html

What I'm wondering is this: Will the last shuttle mission bring back all the astronauts and equipment (?) from the ISS? If not, how will they get home at the end of their mission? In which case, the last shuttle mission will also be the end of the ISS?

The ISS is scheduled to continue operations for many years to come. All future crew exchanges will occur courtesy of the Russian Space Program with both Launchings and Landings happening there.

[mwainer]

"And we pray for one last landing
On the globe that gave us birth,
May we rest our eyes on fleecy skies,
And the cool, green hills of Earth."
- R.A.Heinlein

[nstahl]

Except that the prognosis now is that the hills of Earth won't be so cool. Let's hope some will still be green.

I loved those Heinlein stories back in the day. I expect they helped create a lot of astronauts and scientists, too.

[Mousetrails2009]

It makes me angry from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet to see one of Americas greatest achievements just shut down and dismantled. Now if we want to visit the International Space Station that would never have been constructed without us, we have to thumb a ride with the Russians? I'm counting days until we have a real American in the Whitehouse!

[nstahl]

You mean like GWB who broke the treasury cutting taxes while launching wars? If we had the before-Bush economy we could afford the post-shuttle program even with its drastic overruns.

[Chris Peterson]

It makes me angry from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet to see one of Americas greatest achievements just shut down and dismantled. Now if we want to visit the International Space Station that would never have been constructed without us, we have to thumb a ride with the Russians? :roll: I'm counting days until we have a real American in the Whitehouse! :x

Well, what should we do? The shuttles are too old to fly safely. We could build new ones, but much of the technology is obsolete. We could design something completely new, but at what astronomical cost? The shuttles were never cost effective- except for a few missions where their heavy lift ability was essential, most shuttle missions would have been hugely less expensive with ordinary single-use rocket technology. It's just not clear that there's much need for a reusable launch vehicle.

Of course, I'm of the opinion that the ISS is one of the greatest disasters to ever strike the space program. A vast money pit that produced almost nothing useful, but sucked resources out of countless other projects. With no shuttle and no ISS, we could have explored so much more of our Solar System by now.

[rstevenson]

How anyone can look at the ISS and Shuttle together and conclude it was all a waste of time and money is utterly beyond my comprehension. The shuttle program and the ISS are among the most astounding and inspiring accomplishments of the human race to date. Yes, other budgets for other projects did not get funded properly, but it's not (or it doesn't need to be) a zero-sum game. Perhaps a few trillion less spent on military hardware would have helped fund some of those other space endeavours.

I'm reminded of this XKCD cartoon, which has this ALT text attached...

The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.

Rob

[agulesin]

"Atlantis was being rolled out in" is a broken link... http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110608.html

This link is to tomorrow's APOD, which is perhaps a hint, hmm? So not a broken link; just not an active link yet.

oooppsss! silly me! sorry about that!

But today's APOD doesn't show anything rolling out, neither does it show Atlantis... Anyway, who's complaining!

[Chris Peterson]

How anyone can look at the ISS and Shuttle together and conclude it was all a waste of time and money is utterly beyond my comprehension. The shuttle program and the ISS are among the most astounding and inspiring accomplishments of the human race to date.

A matter of perspective, I guess. A lot of clever engineering, but that's all I see. Nothing very inspiring. We spent over a billion dollars to get a beautiful picture, and not much else. For a fraction of that we could have a probe around another planet, returning gigabytes of exciting new information.

Yes, other budgets for other projects did not get funded properly, but it's not (or it doesn't need to be) a zero-sum game. Perhaps a few trillion less spent on military hardware would have helped fund some of those other space endeavours.

Well, good luck with that. The reality is that it IS a zero-sum game. If we were somehow able to turn our culture around so it valued scientific knowledge more than having a big army... well, that really would be inspiring!

I'm reminded of this XKCD cartoon, which has this ALT text attached...

The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.

But we don't need the shuttle, or even reusable launch vehicles, to continue exploring space.