I was woken up at 5:54 this morning by the familiar sonic booms that I've been hearing for the past 20 years or so as the shuttle lands. Whenever it happens, my first reaction is still, "omg, wtf was that?!?" Welcome back, Atlantis and RIP, shuttle program. I has a sad.

 rosedraws wrote: 

  

When the Space Shuttle lands, everybody wear Ape suits, pass it on.

I posted this on my journal entry but thought more people may see it here.

Ex-Astronaut Story Musgrave Blasts NASA, Washington, Over Space Shuttle Program Failures

From the article:

"The shuttle did not turn out like we planned," Dr. Story Musgrave told The Huffington Post. "It was going to 66 times a year and it ended up with about five times a year. It was going to cost $10 million a flight, and two months ago, an independent study showed that it cost $1.2 billion a flight. It was massively fragile, difficult to operate and exceedingly dangerous."

and

"The downside is the space station needs us, needs a shuttle to service it in a way that nothing else can," he said.

"I think what the real problem is: Why are we so poor in our vision and so poor in our project management that we come to a point where it's reasonable to phase out the current program and we have no idea what the next one is? Washington has to stop doing that."

"Washington is in total failure that this has happened," he added. "It is Washington's fault and they have to look in the mirror and have to see their failure. It's NASA, Washington, Congress and the administration — they are in failure."

As an example of what he perceives as NASA's failure "to have any vision leadership or project management," Musgrave talked about NASA's Assured Crew Return Vehicle — or escape module — proposal for the International Space Station.

"That's the lifeboat. In 1974, when we saw that a space station was going to happen, we had a requirement to have a lifeboat to be able to get off the station in case of a fire or some other catastrophe. That was 1974. Where is our lifeboat? We don't have one because there's no leadership in Washington, there is no vision and they're unable to manage a project like that.

"It can be a totally manually flown thing without a computer — it's so simply done, and we toyed with it for years. If you want to have the biggest example of failure in Washington to be able to do anything, where is the assured crew return vehicle?"

For my thoughts on the shuttle and America in space check out my journal entry.

 Zep wrote: 

Aw hell, LOTS of things would be great for Mixtape. I have a long, long list of ideas. It's torture when our turn comes around and we have to actually pick ONE.

 Alexandra wrote: 
That would have been great for Mixtape.

 

 Alexandra wrote: 

BillG is doing a rocket theme, for the occasion of the last Shuttle. (Or else it's a HUGE coincidence) 

 Businessgypsy wrote: 
I've only been over there to see one and that was in the early 90s. I had always wanted to catch a night launch but alas, it wasn't to be.

Been watching NASA all my life and it never fails to amaze.

 kysmet wrote:Way cloudy here, glad I caught a few earlier launches up close like. 

 miamizsun wrote: 
Yeah, we were going to go to the roof of our building but because of the clouds, we watched it on our HD flat screen in the conference room. I got a little teary-eyed.

 kysmet wrote: 
very cool! thanks

 kysmet wrote: 
friggin clouds, wanted to try and see in person. oh well, logged in and watching in hd.

thx

Watch the launch in HD

 edieraye wrote: 
Very cool!  This almost makes up for the fact that you said you don't think you'd notice scratches on your glasstop.    

 edieraye wrote: 
woW. I  would love to stargaze with YOU!

I've been following NASA on twitter and it is a BLAST!  There was a meeting yesterday about an upcoming launch.  Someone updated the twitter feed every few minutes.  Half the time I had no idea what they were talking about it but that didn't keep me from being utterly fascinated.  For example: Discussed a missing ceramic plug from around a window on Discovery's mission. So we installed STS-132 plugs with new locking cords. I was so excited that I told my husband.  He asked me what it meant.  Admitted I didn't know but, "Isn't it just cool?" He might not have been as into it as I was.  Here is something else I learned that really is interesting: Risk for the loss of crew or shuttle from micrometeoroid & orbital debris is 1 in 379, typical for shuttle missions to space station. Did you know that?  I didn't.  Doesn't that seem high?

Anyway, the little girl in me who was fascinated with the stars, the teenager who devoured Andre Norton books, and the grown woman who keeps looking for adventure around every bend are all completely enamored with the NASA twitter feed.  And no, you don't have to sign up or join twitter or give blood or anything.  Just click here:  twitter.com/NASA

Isn't there some row on board the space station now? Something about the Russian astronaut not being allowed to use the U.S astronauts lavatory?

I caught a snippet of conversation on radio 4 the other day but never followed it up.

A cold war IN space now?