US space shuttle Discovery docks at space station

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: BBC

The US space shuttle Discovery has docked at the International Space Station.

It has docked for the last time, as it is set to be retired after this mission and placed in a museum.

This is the 13th time it has flown to the space station, where it is to deliver a new store room and a sophisticated humanoid robot.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12589183?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

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Nasa page updated
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

[Rick Myers]

1. I'm such a nerd...

I watched the docking live on the NASA feed!!!

[DeadEyeDyck]

2. It is kind of sad

As one from Fl., the shuttle has been there all my life! And now it is gone.

[zonkers]

8. What a cool memory.

[Ready4Change]

3. Beginning of the end of an era.

I recall when the STS was stepping into the too long empty gap after Apollo. I've always thought it was overly complex, the results of a design left far too much in the hands of committees, and at the whims of an ever whittling budget. But damned if it didn't still get the job done. And one of my best memories, thus far, was taking a spur of the moment trip to Florida to watch a launch.

As it steps out, leaving another gap which will remain empty for, at this point, an unspecified number of years at best, I am perversely proud of it. As if I were the uncle of a child who, despite a myriad of obstacles and infirmities, still managed to achieve a full and hearty life.

It's a vehicle that done good, and may it's footprint not remain empty for long.

[social_critic]

5. Rube Goldberg design, costly, does very little for the money spent on it

And dangerous as hell. This was the conclusion my 14 year old son reached for his science project a few years ago. And he backed it very well. Unfortunately, most people don't realize just how much money was wasted, and how badly the shuttle and space station set back US science and research over the years.

[NuclearDem]

6. Well, with the MIC sucking away all of NASA's potential funding

They had to work with what they could get...

Without the STS, we wouldn't have Hubble, we wouldn't have been able to build the ISS to the point it's gotten, and we would've been set back even further.

[social_critic]

7. Baloney

I'm for closing down the Pentagon, but I don't think that's relevant here.

The Shuttle wasn't necessary to launch the Hubble. The US had heavy lift launchers capable of much larger lifts (Saturns), therefore NONE of the STS launch capabilities were needed.

The International Space Station (ISS) is another Rube Goldberg contramption, it does very little research, it costs a lot of money, and it's going to get its crew killed in the medium term.

What has set us back is precisely the STS and the ISS, because they have sucked huge sums of money to create a space circus, which most people don't even bother to watch. This is about a self perpetuating government bureaucracy supported by private interests to create an endless spending stream which accomplishes nothing. Truly, there's very little difference between these two manned projects and an aircraft carrier, they are all expensive and accomplish almost nothing.

The money spent on these terrible designs should have been spent instead on developing a modern heavy lift vehicle, call it an improved version of the Saturn V, and robotic exploration missions, rovers, orbiters, and space telescopes. If we had chosen that path, we would have learned a lot more, and the money developing the robots would have led to huge advances in cybernetics for peace. As it is, the bulk of the robotic research by the US is done to develop proto-Terminators.

Please don't sell me this crap about not being able to build the Hubble without the STS. Without the STS, we could have launched three Hubbles PER YEAR.

[Ferret Annica]

9. Heh, you know what you are talking about

This is refreshing to see. We impoverish ourselves by denying ourselves the frontier space is. And you don't explore space by building a greyhound bus that costs too much and doesn't perform as originally advertised.

We need to go 'out there.' The rewards in how it fires our imagination and adds to our lives is something we are the poorer for if we don't engage in exploration of this solar system. And we will never learn to go farther than 'our yard' unless we venture out of the play pen of near Earth orbit ops.

[NuclearDem]

4. So long OV-103...

It's STS-133...final Shuttle flight is STS-135. Only two more left...

[stevedeshazer]

10. It's amazing, isn't it?

Folks criticize the shuttle missions, but they really are astonishing.