With only four space shuttle flights left, how do you feel about our having canceled the program?

[Stinky The Clown]

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I think it's fine.

Seems to me that we can do better space exploration without risking human life.

Using people on those flights was mostly to garner support...

Robots do good work and there's no risk.

[Posteritatis]

2. It's unfashionable to say so here these days, but it feels like a loss

And it will continue to do so until there's some kind of replacement or improvement in operation.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. I feel that way too.

[DeadEyeDyck]

34. Me too

[phasma ex machina]

36. +4

[Johonny]

40. Yeah because the US doesn't have the Delta IV

Atlas V, Athena, Minotaur, Pegasus, Falcon IX... The US has a lot of launching ability. I don't see the big deal ending a nice but very expensive and old launching platform with so many other launching platforms. I really don't understand why people don't know the US has lots of launch vehicles. The shuttle wasn't even that vital a launching platform since the 1980s. It's primary mission has been to service the space station. The space stations primary mission has been to be serviced by the shuttle. I'm glad to see Obama moving out of this trap and hopefully into something brighter in and more goals oriented. At the present the US is more than able to launch it's primary mission into space. The past/present and future of space exploration has been unmanned missions.

[Posteritatis]

41. I'm not counting satellite launchers

If you believe manned flight is intrinsically bad or otherwise a negative, I doubt we're going to be having any kind of discussion that doesn't involve a pair of walls.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Kind of sad.

I understand why it was canceled, but those shuttle launches were so cool...

[bobbolink]

38. Housing for everyone would be "cool", too.

[Lyric]

48. I agree, but I don't think they'll use the saved money for housing.

They'll use it for the military, most likely--as if we need an even MORE bloated defense budget. Nobody cares about the poor and the homeless. The right-wing Mantra of Life is that the only people who are poor and homeless are those who "deserve" to be. *sigh*

[Terra Alta]

4. I will miss watching the shuttle launches...

I always loved watching them...

[thunder rising]

5. I don't need to see good people blown up anymore.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

60. 2 out of 134 shuttle missions ended in disaster........

thats 1.4% failure. Compare that to the failure rate of the Apollo program where 2 out of 12 missions (A11 blew up on the pad and killed all aboard, A13 had oxygen tanks burst en route to the moon and the astronauts nearly didn't make it) for 17% failure. Compared to the shuttle program, Apollo was a man-killer.

Death is a part of exploration, and folks who are explorers know their chances and choose to continue anyway. As soon as we stop exploring and expanding our boundaries because of danger, we're dead as a species.

[tammywammy]

6. It was a bad decision that started with Bush

The whole "go to Mars" thing was stupid. Then there was already the lack of the shuttle and it's replacement which would mean no human space flight for years. Then to have it just canceled? Horrible decision. It's a testament to our lacking of appreciation of science in this country.

I do agree with allowing private companies to get in on space flight, but I believe that it's in the best interest of everyone if the government still promotes it.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. Like I Feel About The Car I Traded In Today

A bit sad after so many years, but it's the right thing to do.

[DemoTex]

15. Well said, MG.

Now, if I can just get my Toyota truck sold.

[MannyGoldstein]

23. BTW, Ford is Offering an Extra $1k on Toyota and Honda Trade Ins

Just got a silly-cheap deal on a Fusion - would've been even $1k cheaper if my trade in had been the right brand...

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

9. sad, but probably overdue

The last flight will almost certainly represent the end of independent US manned space flight and will serve as a major milestone in the decline of the United States as an advanced power - but the bottom line is the shuttles are becoming extremely impractical to maintain.

I am planning on going to the last launch in Florida with my dad and my girlfriends dad. My father has always been a space geek and my girlfriends dad worked on the shuttle program when Vandenberg was a backup launch site.

[Canuckistanian]

10. Ambivalent

The Space Shuttle was overdesigned. Sort of like using an 18 wheeler truck to go pick the kids up from swimming class.

But it did do good work, like delivering the ISS equipment and doing repair work on the Hubble.

It'll be missed, but it's time to move on to the next chapter.

[11 Bravo]

46. The exact word I was going to use.

[AwakeAtLast]

11. I would feel sad if we had a budget surplus

but because of the huge deficit the Repukes left us with, we really have no choice.

I've posted that NASA's budget was way too large and got called down for it. But hey, I'm a teacher and I have to take a pay cut - NASA can, too.

[Posteritatis]

39. "Way too large?" Can you even say what it is without resorting to Google, out of curiosity? (nt)

[Oregone]

12. Dont give a shit

[HBravo]

13. It is the wrong thing to do with the space station up there.

[WhiteTara]

14. It's okay with me

I watched blow up on take off and one blow up on re entry. Nothing much happened in between.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

16. Just seems like yet another goddamned thing coming to an end that I'd assumed would go on

Why is it we can't do anything POSITIVE anymore?

[JI7]

17. i disagree with Obama on that

[misanthrope]

31. Obama didn't end the shuttle program...

...He put the brakes on a return to the moon. The ending of the shuttle program has been in the works for a while.

[Speck Tater]

18. In the last few declining years of the American Empire we will try to put a good show, but...

the party's over. Last one out the door, turn off the lights. It was fun while it lasted, but the space age is history.

[KonaKane]

19. Great. It's just expensive masturbation at this point.

The shuttle program reminds me of a 7th grade chemistry class I took. At one point in the text there was an experiment that called for lighting a small pan of alcohol on fire. Since I was a pyro (like alot of boys my age) I really got into this experiment, and instead of moving on, kept repeating it over and over again because it was fun. It wasn't progressing my course work, it was just wanking off for lack of a better term.

This is what our shuttle "program" has become. I'm glad Obama yanked funding. If you're going to have a serious space program again, then fine let's fund it. Otherwise, better to put that money to work on earth.

[applegrove]

20. As exciting as it is it cannot be afforded right now. Perhaps in another 25 years there

might be a way to make money out of space. For now the only function space actually has, in terms of becoming a tool of mankind, is satellites and they just need rockets to get them into orbit..not space program. Money is better spent elsewhere.

[jwirr]

21. It is too bad for the workers in those programs but if we do not take

care of our own countries economic problems they were doomed anyhow. If we keep melting down we will not have the money for any of these programs.

[L0oniX]

27. +1

[Motown_Johnny]

22. I have a problem with us not developing a 2nd generation shuttle

but those things have flown long enough


We can't continue with them if there is any chance they are not as safe as they should be.


Life goes on.

[pansypoo53219]

24. come on.

it's like going to space in a pinto.

[Warren Stupidity]

25. It should have been canceled 20 years ago when the first one blew up.

Good riddance.

[kestrel91316]

26. Sad

[unkachuck]

28. we can....

....piss money away in multitude of useless ways, I don't see why we can't find the wherewithal to maintain manned space flight....in the corporate age, we must privatize!

....we put a man on the moon over forty years ago and we can't replicate the same mission today....we're sinking fast, it's just another sign of our decline....

[asdjrocky]

29. I feel it accurately depicts the vision of this administration.

[Recursion]

30. The shuttle was always a bad idea, IMO

Though I think it's idiotic that we didn't come up with a replacement program even though we were supposed to have one working 10 years ago.

[misanthrope]

32. The space program has reached the end of our current technology...

...I find the fanciful ideas of extraplanetary colonization to be ridiculous. We're just too primitive.

[slampoet]

33. It is FANTASTIC that they have cancelled the shuttle and will be going with big booster rockets.

I have been wanting this since 1985.

[Blue_Tires]

35. Kind of how I felt when ditching my Nintendo Entertainment System

but I saw where the future of gaming was headed, and it was glorious...

[PinkoDonkey]

37. Conflicted.

Ending the shuttle program is the right thing to do. Getting a ride from Putin to get to the ISS is kind of embarrassing. I hope that the end of the shuttle might lead to a renewed sense of wonder and curiosity about space when we do eventually resume manned exploration in some form.

[cherokeeprogressive]

42. Oh that a man's reach should exceed his grasp... or what's a Heaven for?

I'm heartbroken.

[donheld]

43. As long as Sarah can be sent to the moon on the last one I'm ok with it.

[Historic NY]

44. Its hard to believe over 33 yrs ago this month the Enterprise first took flight...

I remember the excitment of those early date flight tests. I remember seeing her mount up on the 747 on a stop over. I remember when she was the toast of many countries while on tour in the 80's. The Enterprise still sitting waiting to be discovered by visitors to the Smithsonian Air & Space at Dulles Airport. Where has the time gone? I often thought this program should have progress well beyond the shuttle long ago.

[Vogon_Glory]

45. Saddened, BUT

I'm saddened that the space shuttle program is ending.

I do have some very unfashionable opinions about the shuttle, though. I think that the shuttle was a bad design and should have been replaced by something better years ago. The shuttle was originally envisioned to be a cheaper, reusable alternative to Gemini/Apollo-style multi-stage rockets and never did turn out that way. The shuttles were costly to operate, seemed to take forever to prep and fly again, and stymied the development of a better design.

One of the things I blame Republicans for, particularly the Republican congressional representatives and senators of the Clinton and Boosh eras was for cutting funding for shuttle replacements to fund their Iraq wars and their precious :sarcasm: tax-cuts for billionaires. Not that I hold Democrats totally innocent, but we're less guilty than the GOPsters, whose only interest in space flight was if a manned space mission looked like a good photo backdrop.

I believe that the US ought to have a manned space program. I don't believe that this solar system is all that safe, and I think that places like Tunguska, the Winslow meteor crater, and Xixchulub off the Yucatan prove it. It would be nice to have a space ship that could intercept, divert, or destroy dangerous asteroids and comets in a timely fashion. That we don't have a deep space presence is high treason. These are among the few natural diasters we could PREVENT.

I dearly hope that the private sector is now capable of developing a practical, cheap space shuttle without interference from NASA bureaucrats. Even if the first post-Shuttle generation of orbiters is only good for giving kleptocrats joy rides, the technology can be put to better use later on.

:dem:

[KG]

47. time to move forward with deeper space explorations using robotics.

twice the science for half the price if you leave off the cost of keeping a human alive.

[caraher]

49. mixed feelings

Losing the capabilities is a bit disturbing. But we're not really committed to anything whose payoff is worth the cost (human and financial) of the shuttle and ISS, so it's the smart move.

It always was the bastard child of a vision of increased human presence in space and shrinking budgets. Support for the vision disappeared during the design phase almost 40 years ago, and the result was a hodgepodge of engineering compromises that led to a Rube Goldberg-esque hybrid of reusable and disposable rocketry (which pretty much led to the first shuttle loss). If you'd told me in the mid-'70s we'd still be flying these with no next-generation replacement in play in 2010 I wouldn't have believed it.

It's time for retirement.

[hunter]

50. Very relieved... at least I will be when the last flight is back on the ground.

Riding into space with cargo was a bad idea from the start.

If I ever have to be blasted into space (I'd rather not) I want to present as small a target for Murphy's Law as I can. I think my ideal surface-to-orbit spacecraft would look like a tennis ball.

[RT Atlanta]

51. Disappointed... where's the inspiration?

Human space flight is in keeping with one of humankind's greatest traits - the desire to explore the unknown. I regularly talk to my children about the space program and its accomplishments hoping to provide some level of inspiration to them, but I am going to be most disappointed if everything starts to be "backgward looking."

Our country seems to be shelving nearly 50 years of manned spaceflight experience in favor of the COTS program.

[SidDithers]

52. I'm saddened by the loss of the program...

I'd rather see money spent on a next generation space shuttle, than a next generation fighter jet or stealth bomber.

Sid

[TalkingDog]

53. "They can put a man on the moon, but...."

Right now, we need to think about the fact that we, as a nation, are in dire financial straits. Even as a wee child I had dreams of going into outer space, of being a space traveler. Science fiction and the sciences in general are optimists. They are problem solvers at heart. You can't be a pessimists and think problems are worth solving.

So I'm disappointed.

But frankly, I'd rather see the money go to feed children, or help old grannies who have run out of heating oil. We can travel when we have the means to pay for it.

Sucks being an adult.

[PVnRT]

54. It sucks

We're going to hitch rides with other countries to get into space. Kennedy is rolling in his grave right now.

[n2doc]

55. It just amazes me that we don't have a replacement

And not a retread of Apollo. One would have thought, after 30+ years (yes, the shuttle was developed in the 70's) that the most "technologically advanced nation on Earth" could have come up with something faster, better, safer, and less damaging to the environment. But then again most of our efforts over the past 3 decades have gone into more efficiently killing people, maintaining health (but not curing diseases), or making it easier for folks to access porn.

[Vogon_Glory]

62. And A Lot of the Replacement Shuttle Money Probably Went to

I suspect that a lot of the money that forward-thinking individuals across the political spectrum would have liked to have seen used for a replacement space shuttle went for Team Shrub's precious tax cuts.

[begin_within]

56. I never liked their on-time departure record.

Made it terrible to meet connecting flights.

[Phoonzang]

57. The shuttle has been flying for my entire life (born in 1980)

It'll be sad to see it go. I'm somewhat hopeful that something else will replace it. Eventually. In like a decade. *sigh*

[farmout rightarm]

58. Very disappointed that a new gen shuttle-type system was not developed.

...

[Dappleganger]

59. Very sad.

But it's understandable with the present economy.

[JCMach1]

61. What's worse is that Obama has killed manned flight (except by corporations) period!

[ddeclue]

63. A really stupid idea to cancel the Shuttle.

[MilesColtrane]

64. I'm OK with it. The shuttle is a forty year old design.

I do think that not having a replacement vehicle ready for when the shuttle is mothballed is stupid and short sighted.