faceless drone- NASA profits the country at least 5:1 on every dollar spent unlike so many useless and fraud ridden government programs. NASA's annual budget is $16B, an amount blown by OBAMA in about each 3 day period under his current out of control spending. This is the area where the US technology must be preserved and pushed forward for the future. Instead, OBAMA is determined to take the one area where we excel and destroy it.
Reply to this comment
by LibertarianOH July 21, 2011 6:53 PM EDT
That was the most accurate comment I have seen on this thread... PERIOD!
Thank You!
Obama and his minion, Lori Garver, have destroyed the US space program. We now will pay the Russians for access to the space station. Instead of investing in high technology which has returned 5:1 on every dollar spent, Obama is determined to destroy one of the few places that the US excels in technology. It is interesting to note that each NASA facility located in a Red state will now lose 10s of thousands of highly trained employees. This is just another political decision by OBAMA to destroy the US lead in space..
Reply to this commentThe constellation program was underway and had a successful launch of the first stage in October of 2009. It had re-used the shuttle solids and was underway so I disagree that NOTHING was done , since there was clear progress. This was cancelled because as Lori Garver said, it was a Bush program.
Sent from my iPad
Monday, April 2, 2012
CBS special on shuttle
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Atlantis and four astronauts returned from the International Space Station in triumph Thursday, bringing an end to NASA's 30-year shuttle journey with one last, rousing touchdown that drew cheers and tears.
"We each got choked up at different times," crew member Rex Walheim told reporters at a post-landing press conference. "There were times that you would take in the big picture, and it would get to you."
Coming home to a future clouded by tight budgets and uncertain political support, commander Christopher Ferguson guided Atlantis through a sweeping left overhead turn and lined up on runway 15, quickly descending into the glare of powerful xenon spotlights, CBS News space analyst William Harwood reports.
CBS Space Place: Latest on the shuttle mission
Approaching the 3-mile-long runway, Ferguson pulled the shuttle's nose up in a graceful flare, co-pilot Douglas Hurley lowered the ship's landing gear and Atlantis settled to a tire-smoking touchdown at 5:57 a.m. Eastern time. A few seconds later, as Atlantis barreled down the runway at more than 200 miles per hour, Hurley deployed a red-and-white braking parachute and the shuttle's nose gear settled to the runway.
"Having fired the imagination of a generation, a ship like no other, it's place in history secured, the space shuttle pulls into port for the last time, its voyage at an end," said mission control commentator Rob Navias.
Thousands gathered near the landing strip and packed Kennedy Space Center, and countless others watched from afar, as NASA's longest-running spaceflight program came to a close.
"After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle's earned its place in history. And it's come to a final stop," Ferguson radioed after a ghostlike Atlantis glided through the twilight.
"Job well done, America," replied Mission Control.
58 Photos
NASA's final shuttle flight
View the Full Gallery »
Harwood has covered the space program for CBS News for 20 years.
"It's almost like a funeral," Harwood told CBS News correspondent Rebecca Jarvis from Kennedy Space Center on CBS' "The Early Show." "I hate to put it that way, but it's almost like the loss of a good friend for all the thousands of people that have worked on the space shuttle over the last three decades. Seeing it come down to this landing and close out the program is truly a bittersweet moment."
With the shuttle's end, it will be another three to five years at best before Americans are launched again from U.S. soil, with private companies gearing up to seize the Earth-to-orbit-and-back baton from NASA.
Until then, NASA astronauts will continue to hitch rides to the space station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft — for around $60 million per seat, Harwood reports.
"That's something that simply doesn't sit very well among the men and women who care and feed the shuttle over all of these years," Harwood told Jarvis. "There's some real disappointment about that more than the fact that the shuttle itself is over."
The long-term future for American space exploration is just as hazy, a huge concern for many at NASA and all those losing their jobs because of the shuttle's end. Asteroids and Mars are the destinations of choice, yet NASA has yet to settle on a rocket design to get astronauts there.
Video: Atlantis crew set to return to Earth
U.S. shuttle leaves space station for last time
Space program "super fan" faces mixed emotions
Thursday, though, belonged to Atlantis and its crew: Ferguson, Hurley, Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus, who completed a successful space station resupply mission.
"The space shuttle has changed the way we view the world and it's changed the way we view our universe," Ferguson radioed from Atlantis. "There's a lot of emotion today, but one thing's indisputable. America's not going to stop exploring.
"Thank you Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour, and our ship Atlantis, thank you for protecting us and bringing this program to such a fitting end."
21 Photos
The storied career of Atlantis
View the Full Gallery »
For the landing, there wasn't nearly the hoopla that surrounded Atlantis' launch on July 8 — when an estimated 1 million packed the Cape Canaveral area — because of the hour and lack of spectacle. The darkness robbed virtually all views of the approaching shuttle, and made it more of a NASA family affair.
Atlantis was greeted with cheers, whistles and shouts from the record 2,000 who had gathered near the runway — astronauts' families and friends, as well as shuttle managers and NASA brass. Soon, the sun was up and provided a splendid view. Within an hour, Ferguson and his crew were out on the runway and swarmed by well-wishers.
"The things that we've done have set us up for exploration of the future," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., a former shuttle commander. "But I don't want to talk about that right now. I just want to salute this crew, welcome them home."
Nine-hundred miles away, flight director Tony Ceccacci, who presided over Atlantis' safe return, choked up while signing off from shuttle Mission Control in Houston.
"The work done in this room, in this building, will never again be duplicated," he told his team of flight controllers.
At those words, dozens of past and present flight controllers quickly streamed into the room, embracing one another and snapping pictures while keeping their tears, if not their emotions, in check.
But on the landing strip in Florida, flight director Mike Leinbach said the tears flowed. He himself was awash with emotion as he took in "the beauty of the vehicle," snapped pictures and posed for pictures at workers' requests, some of whom face layoffs.
"I saw grown men and grown women crying today — tears of joy to be sure," Leinbach told reporters. "Human emotions came out on the runway today, and you couldn't suppress them."
"We each got choked up at different times," crew member Rex Walheim told reporters at a post-landing press conference. "There were times that you would take in the big picture, and it would get to you."
Coming home to a future clouded by tight budgets and uncertain political support, commander Christopher Ferguson guided Atlantis through a sweeping left overhead turn and lined up on runway 15, quickly descending into the glare of powerful xenon spotlights, CBS News space analyst William Harwood reports.
CBS Space Place: Latest on the shuttle mission
Approaching the 3-mile-long runway, Ferguson pulled the shuttle's nose up in a graceful flare, co-pilot Douglas Hurley lowered the ship's landing gear and Atlantis settled to a tire-smoking touchdown at 5:57 a.m. Eastern time. A few seconds later, as Atlantis barreled down the runway at more than 200 miles per hour, Hurley deployed a red-and-white braking parachute and the shuttle's nose gear settled to the runway.
"Having fired the imagination of a generation, a ship like no other, it's place in history secured, the space shuttle pulls into port for the last time, its voyage at an end," said mission control commentator Rob Navias.
Thousands gathered near the landing strip and packed Kennedy Space Center, and countless others watched from afar, as NASA's longest-running spaceflight program came to a close.
"After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle's earned its place in history. And it's come to a final stop," Ferguson radioed after a ghostlike Atlantis glided through the twilight.
"Job well done, America," replied Mission Control.
58 Photos
NASA's final shuttle flight
View the Full Gallery »
Harwood has covered the space program for CBS News for 20 years.
"It's almost like a funeral," Harwood told CBS News correspondent Rebecca Jarvis from Kennedy Space Center on CBS' "The Early Show." "I hate to put it that way, but it's almost like the loss of a good friend for all the thousands of people that have worked on the space shuttle over the last three decades. Seeing it come down to this landing and close out the program is truly a bittersweet moment."
With the shuttle's end, it will be another three to five years at best before Americans are launched again from U.S. soil, with private companies gearing up to seize the Earth-to-orbit-and-back baton from NASA.
Until then, NASA astronauts will continue to hitch rides to the space station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft — for around $60 million per seat, Harwood reports.
"That's something that simply doesn't sit very well among the men and women who care and feed the shuttle over all of these years," Harwood told Jarvis. "There's some real disappointment about that more than the fact that the shuttle itself is over."
The long-term future for American space exploration is just as hazy, a huge concern for many at NASA and all those losing their jobs because of the shuttle's end. Asteroids and Mars are the destinations of choice, yet NASA has yet to settle on a rocket design to get astronauts there.
Video: Atlantis crew set to return to Earth
U.S. shuttle leaves space station for last time
Space program "super fan" faces mixed emotions
Thursday, though, belonged to Atlantis and its crew: Ferguson, Hurley, Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus, who completed a successful space station resupply mission.
"The space shuttle has changed the way we view the world and it's changed the way we view our universe," Ferguson radioed from Atlantis. "There's a lot of emotion today, but one thing's indisputable. America's not going to stop exploring.
"Thank you Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour, and our ship Atlantis, thank you for protecting us and bringing this program to such a fitting end."
21 Photos
The storied career of Atlantis
View the Full Gallery »
For the landing, there wasn't nearly the hoopla that surrounded Atlantis' launch on July 8 — when an estimated 1 million packed the Cape Canaveral area — because of the hour and lack of spectacle. The darkness robbed virtually all views of the approaching shuttle, and made it more of a NASA family affair.
Atlantis was greeted with cheers, whistles and shouts from the record 2,000 who had gathered near the runway — astronauts' families and friends, as well as shuttle managers and NASA brass. Soon, the sun was up and provided a splendid view. Within an hour, Ferguson and his crew were out on the runway and swarmed by well-wishers.
"The things that we've done have set us up for exploration of the future," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., a former shuttle commander. "But I don't want to talk about that right now. I just want to salute this crew, welcome them home."
Nine-hundred miles away, flight director Tony Ceccacci, who presided over Atlantis' safe return, choked up while signing off from shuttle Mission Control in Houston.
"The work done in this room, in this building, will never again be duplicated," he told his team of flight controllers.
At those words, dozens of past and present flight controllers quickly streamed into the room, embracing one another and snapping pictures while keeping their tears, if not their emotions, in check.
But on the landing strip in Florida, flight director Mike Leinbach said the tears flowed. He himself was awash with emotion as he took in "the beauty of the vehicle," snapped pictures and posed for pictures at workers' requests, some of whom face layoffs.
"I saw grown men and grown women crying today — tears of joy to be sure," Leinbach told reporters. "Human emotions came out on the runway today, and you couldn't suppress them."
Russian space mystery solved
Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:
AmericaSpace
For a nation that explores
April 2nd, 2012
Russian Space Mystery Solved, Spacecraft Found Toppled On Moon
By Craig Covault
Graphic illustrates the planned mission of Luna 23. Use large sampling arm to drill into surface then swing the sample up to fill Earth reentry vehicle for ascent stage blastoff back to Earth. Photo Credit: Lavochkin
A nearly 40-year-old mystery about a major Soviet Moon mission failure has been solved by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft.
A several hundred million dollar mission to robotically gather lunar samples and return them to Earth failed when the Luna 23 spacecraft toppled over on its side wrecking any chances for the spacecraft to work, images from the LRO cameras show.
The Soviet Luna 23 spacecraft was launched in November, 1974 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was a large vehicle meant to land on the Moon then drill deeply into the lunar surface to obtain samples that it would then fire back to Earth for study.
After 11 major failures two previous spacecraft, Luna 16 in September, 1970 and Luna 20 in February, 1972 had previously done that successfully.
LRO High Resolution Camera system image of the Luna 23 spacecraft shows it in context with the terrain context and larger. Note the spacecraft has clearly toppled over on its side, most clearly indicated by the large silver avionics canister atop the ascent stage (A) lying on ground attached to descent stage (D). Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
The magnitude of the program was enormous to build and program the spacecraft and build the test the large Proton rockets needed to fly these missions to the Moon.
Luna 23 was to be the last or next to last Soviet spacecraft to do that, essentially terminating a Russian lunar program that had been trying to upstage the Americans for more than 15 years.
After the success of the U. S. manned Apollo program that returned about 800 lb. of lunar samples, the Soviet return of 50-100 grams of material per flight seemed trivial on the world stage
Luna 23 maintained radio contact with Earth after touch down on Mare Crisium, but ground controllers feared from telemetry that it had landed at too high a velocity.
It was to immediately lower its sampling drill then transfer its precious load of lunar material to a basketball sized ablative covered Earth reentry vehicle mounted atop a the bright silver canister of electronics attached to a propulsion stage.
Lavochkin technician works near bright silver Earth return avionics canister (point A in LRO image above)topped with Earth reentry sphere to carry samples. At bottom of canister are ascent rocket propellant tanks. Photo Credit: Lavochkin
If everything had gone as planned it would have been fired back to Earth within about 24 hr. But after 3 days of communications and no sampling activities, Luna 23 went dead.
Two years later in an impressive feat of targeting, the Soviets managed to command the identical Lunar 24 sample return spacecraft to land within 1.5 mi. of the long dead Luna 23 to sample the same area of the Moon. Luna 24 performed as planned and returned samples to Earth.
Graphic shows the liftoff of the Luna 24 sample return ascent stage in August, 1976 the last Soviet mission to the Moon. Photo Credit: Lavochkin/Russian Space Web
That ended the Soviet lunar program to the present day and Luna 23 was forgotten. But not by the Goddard and Arizona State LRO team. They began to search images of Mare Crisium and found Luna 23, toppled over.
Its bright upper canister was unmistakable lying on its side atop the large mass of the lander and ascent propulsion systems.
They also found Luna 24, looking upright but much different without its upper stage just 1.5 mi. to the northeast. Its upper stage and reentry vehicle had delivered 170 grams of lunar material to Earth in August, 1976.
Ironically I had a profound experience in the Lavochkin Space Museum in Moscow with engineering versions of all the company’s planetary spacecraft, especially the Luna sample return vehicle.
In 1989 when I visited, it was on the Lavochkin factory campus then not open to public, but a really wonderful museum. Now it is open to public.
The curator who took me around was also one of the engineers who put Yuri Gagarin into Vostok 1.
At the end of the visit he took me back to the engineering version of the Luna sample return spacecraft and handed me one of the three return spheres that had actually brought samples back from the lunar surface.
“Its been on the Mooooooon,” he said with a heavy Russian accent and appropriate reverence. And it was an unforgettable moment for me to get to hold one of those sample spheres(Lavochkin image below)
But then he asked “Have you ever touched anything that has been on the Moooooon?”, again with great reverence. He rightfully expected me to say something like, “Of course not.”
But I blurted out “Yes, Neil Armstrong.” —-and he slumped crestfallen.
Then I felt bad–and still do. But he did ask the question.
Photo Credit: Lavochkin
Copyright © 2012 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved
===============================================================
Our Super Intelligent Harvard Graduate----BHO
Bho can't believe the supreme court would overrule a law passed by a majority in Congress!!!
1. All laws are passed by a majotity.
2. That is what the court does.
Discussed by Brit Byrer, fox news, Special Report.
1. All laws are passed by a majotity.
2. That is what the court does.
Discussed by Brit Byrer, fox news, Special Report.
Oil is fuel for engine of freedom--NO REPLACEMENT for IT
Oil is fuel for engine of freedom—no replacement for it
Posted on March 7, 2012 by Bob
Oil is the fuel for Engine of Freedom—no replacement for it—-Rush
The approach of the left is to take control over everything you do—health, energy, food, guns.
There is no solar energy business, grants were a scam. All green grants just a way for bho to get control of money for his cronies.
Nothing better than fossil fuel derived energy. Makes it possible to feed ourselves. We should be thankful for it.
Middle east situation should make us want to expand our sources. Bho does not want us to be independent of middle east.
You should believe the opposite of what adm says.
Credit: Rush Limbaugh
Posted on March 7, 2012 by Bob
Oil is the fuel for Engine of Freedom—no replacement for it—-Rush
The approach of the left is to take control over everything you do—health, energy, food, guns.
There is no solar energy business, grants were a scam. All green grants just a way for bho to get control of money for his cronies.
Nothing better than fossil fuel derived energy. Makes it possible to feed ourselves. We should be thankful for it.
Middle east situation should make us want to expand our sources. Bho does not want us to be independent of middle east.
You should believe the opposite of what adm says.
Credit: Rush Limbaugh
Shuttle replacement
Boeing details bid to win NASA shuttle replacement
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
Boeing has released crucial details of its commercial crew integrated capability (CCiCap) bid that it delivered to NASA on 23 March. The company has twice won awards under the commercial crew development (CCDev) programme, predecessor to CCiCap, to work on its CST-100 capsule. CCDev was meant to stimulate development of vehicles to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. "It's really in two phases," says John Mulholland, the capsule's programme manager, of the latest bid. "There's a 21-month base period where we'll accomplish our critical design review and a significant amount of risk reduction design testing, and we will culminate at the end of the option period with a two-crew flight test."
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
Boeing has released crucial details of its commercial crew integrated capability (CCiCap) bid that it delivered to NASA on 23 March. The company has twice won awards under the commercial crew development (CCDev) programme, predecessor to CCiCap, to work on its CST-100 capsule. CCDev was meant to stimulate development of vehicles to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. "It's really in two phases," says John Mulholland, the capsule's programme manager, of the latest bid. "There's a 21-month base period where we'll accomplish our critical design review and a significant amount of risk reduction design testing, and we will culminate at the end of the option period with a two-crew flight test."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)