Space Shutle Flight Deck

[studemax]

Think so?
Our biggest expense bar none is entitlements.... and now this thread is political.

[Schtauffer]

Just a little something to put it in perspective. I think we should be spending more in space, but not just the USA. It should be the entire world working together and forgetting all the petty BS and conflict. Here on Earth we are one big rock away from extinction, I would rather the human species continued past any catastrophe here on Earth.

Pretty good indicator we should cut military spending in 1/10th. Oh, what to do with all that extra money? How about a new concept-- diplomacy spending!

[storm king]

The space program has brought so much more than Tang. We wouldn't have any cell phones, no satellite TV, our abiulity to see and communicatre glaobally would not exist. Yes, medical and research, weather, and other advances as well. I'm sure NASA has that info available online that can be accessed. But there is an untangible that has been missing, really, since the "great society" (choke) came into being. Americans were driven and proud of their accomplishments. Better programs here on earth for those expenditures? You have GOT to be kidding me! So much of our personal, and national treasure has been diverted to countless types of welfare programs which have moved almost half of america's population into physical and intellectual stagnation! Over regulation has done the rest of the damage.
I get chills up my spine remembering seeing the Shuttle land for the first time, when it simply was releasd from the 747 which carried it around. Later, I went to work for Rockwell, and built Shuttle structures.
I'd like to personally thank the folks who told about their Shuttle experiences, in a dimly let bar, as kids, etc. It means a great deal to me, that it meant a great deal to you. Once, we dreamed dreams, we had visions, of impossible things. Then we Americans went and did them, as no other nation could. Today, we grovel with our hands out, begging gov't to help us. What a pity what we've become...

[Cyclone03]

I saw this post last night,to the question of Was it Worth It? My answer is personal....

My Dad worked in a foundry from 1957 to 1986.It was a small place that started out doing mostly art but there techniques became so good they became a premium contractor for many aircraft companies in So Cal,if you know what Radar Wave Guide is you have more tham likely seen the company logo LLi,any way they had several contracts for components that are now on the moon,and got men there and back safely,he is very proud of his small part in that. For him to have CREATED parts,and held them in his hands,that became a part of that legacy makes him feel very proud.

My Dad had a stroke in 2000 and has been unable to talk,but these stories we have, and when I visit I try to retell the storys back to him as he told them to me,it makes him remember much better times in his life than what he goes though daily now.

So to our family the space program was worth it.

[BBR]

Haha peewee you're too kind!

I would contend our urgency, be it political or whatnot, began to fade at least partially as a result of the shuttle program itself. Flights became routine and they were nothing we really noticed or got excited about. That is, until something tragic happened.

The cold war ended and our drive as a country to 'out-do' the other guys became lost when the other guys ceased being a literal daily threat to our lives. The secret nature of the USSR fueled our drive to stay ahead because we really didn't know for sure if we were ahead or if we were lagging behind.

I have to wonder where we would be today technologically if we still had that constant pressure to stay ahead of the other guys... not just to make a buck or be famous, but to maintain the very existence of our country on this planet.

I see losing the ability of our country to put people in space pretty much at will via shuttle or whatever, a dire threat to our national security. He who rules the air may rule the battlefield, but he who rules the heavens, rules the world.

[pdub]

We could develop them, but many of those seem to be things that just make life better or easier here on Earth, not things that are necessities. We all know that necessity is the mother of invention (although I would interject that 'cheapness' certainly has birthed it's fair share of innovative solutions) and while some of this stuff merely improves our lifestyle, they were necessary innovations to aid the success of space flight and recovery.

Conquering the challenges faced by putting people into an incredibly unforgiving and remote environment can only serve to improve the way we do things here in the comfort of our homes and lives. The key is to keep pushing forward and being on the leading edge of that push and not trailing behind. Unfortunately the political urgency of the space race has long since subsided and I fear the technological urgency has as well. If we continue this course of complacency, we will quickly be surpassed by others who have a hunger to put us behind. We are only helping them achieve their goal.

BBR, that's an awesome piece of writing. That's the most well-said thing I've read in a long time to counterpoint what I can't get out of my head...the question about it all. Wow, that is great. BBR, you're either a NASA employee or a a syndicated space program writer for the media....that is just too good, and I mean it.

And the part about the political urgency of the space program subsiding....well that's where I am. Not that poltics have anything to do with it, politicians follow what the people feel, if they're doing their job at all.

Ebb and flow, and maybe...well I've said too much already. I love seeing a space ship blast off. It's just that I don't understand why nobody voted on on it, and specifiaclly, if there is a bang for the buck, how much bang for the individual buck to we get?

There's no way my opinion's entirely right, but if I have it, that's what NASA is up against with the nation at large, I'm afraid.

[BBR]

We could develop them, but many of those seem to be things that just make life better or easier here on Earth, not things that are necessities. We all know that necessity is the mother of invention (although I would interject that 'cheapness' certainly has birthed it's fair share of innovative solutions) and while some of this stuff merely improves our lifestyle, they were necessary innovations to aid the success of space flight and recovery.

Conquering the challenges faced by putting people into an incredibly unforgiving and remote environment can only serve to improve the way we do things here in the comfort of our homes and lives. The key is to keep pushing forward and being on the leading edge of that push and not trailing behind. Unfortunately the political urgency of the space race has long since subsided and I fear the technological urgency has as well. If we continue this course of complacency, we will quickly be surpassed by others who have a hunger to put us behind. We are only helping them achieve their goal.

[pdub]

I think once we eliminate our ability to put a man in orbit for whatever reason, we need to turn in our 'Superpower Card'.

NASA was that way after both of the shuttle disasters. But yes, this stretch looks long term, and planned, and un-budgeted.

I surfed through Thump's link to NASA's accomplishments above, and okay, there are a lot of things I've been blind to. Or taken for granted.

That only made my head spin again, and y'all help me with this quandry, too. So, all of these things were researched and developed because we had to have them if we were to orbit humans, and they all prove useful on the ground. So....the greatest minds going developed these things from a need to orbit humans, why do we have to orbit humans in order for those same great minds to develop these things to start with?

Really, any of you can change my mind, you can. That's the corner my brain is stuck in right now, right this minute during this discussion.

[BBR]

I think once we eliminate our ability to put a man in orbit for whatever reason, we need to turn in our 'Superpower Card'.

[pdub]

If I had to pick one thing that I feel NASA has contributed to society....it is the creation and retelling of stories like this.

That and the national pride that consumed america during the early days.

Its a damn same that since then, the only thing that really brought the nation together, albeit for a short period of time, were the deaths of thousands at the hands of a few religious radicals.

Well, that and the 1984 US Olympic Hockey team....

these are just my thoughts and opinions, and we all know what those are worth.

They're worth gold on that point, and that's exactly where I intended to go, but I probably did it poorly. The moon landing, yeah that was the big IT. Everybody huddled around the TV at Mama and Daddy's house, astounded at the grainy videos from the moon. Astounded. A collective national gasp of "WE did it." It felt like we ALL did it, with the space race going on. And who else but Walter Cronkite to cover it for us?

My daddy liked to tell people after that, "We have a really good TV. It'll pick up the moon."

[JOES66FURY]

[QUOTEI would like to thank Nasa for the moon landing
My Mom let us stay up late for it... my uncle who didn't have a TV drove 50 miles to watch it with us.
We made KoolAid and popcorn, and had a grand old time.

If I had to pick one thing that I feel NASA has contributed to society....it is the creation and retelling of stories like this.

That and the national pride that consumed america during the early days.

Its a damn same that since then, the only thing that really brought the nation together, albeit for a short period of time, were the deaths of thousands at the hands of a few religious radicals.

Well, that and the 1984 US Olympic Hockey team....

these are just my thoughts and opinions, and we all know what those are worth.

[studemax]

I would like to thank Nasa for the moon landing

My Mom let us stay up late for it... my uncle who didn't have a TV drove 50 miles to watch it with us.
We made KoolAid and popcorn, and had a grand old time.

[LORENSWIFE]

Thump,

A hearty discussion indeed. And it could go south toward political in a heartbeat, but I don't think it has, other than my jab at NASA being self-serving.

So, in the morning, really, when we get out of bed and put our feet on the floor, there in the house, waking up and getting out of bed, what can we thank NASA for when our feet hit the floor?

That's the part I can't see, and I'm probably blind to it, whatever it is.

I would like to thank Nasa for the moon landing

My mom and sister and I, on our way back from camping at Bass Lake had the radio on in the Studebaker Lark that she drove. She had the radio on cuz she was a pretty cool Mom. She was listening for when they would get out of the lunar module and step on the ground. As the time got close she started looking for any place that might have a TV. There happened to be a bar along the road somewhere on California 99. She sweet-talked the bar person to let her bring her two little girls in to see this most historic event.
My sister Nancy, Mom and I watched that "small step" together in a dimly lit bar along a hot dusty highway. I will never forget that, if I close my eyes I can see it all.

~Gail

[daved931]

FWIW, the driving force behind the shuttle program was two-fold:

1) Reusable equipment
2) Snatch Russian satellites out of orbit

Initially, the government had planned to do military shuttle missions that were to be launched from Vandenberg AFB. They even built a launch pad and vehicle assembly building there. I don't believe they ever actually launched a shuttle mission from there and after the fleet was grounded following the whole Challenger debacle, it was decided to perform all launches at Cape Canaveral.



Was there a payout for going to the moon or having a space program in general? I would say that's hard to quantify.

There were certainly some neat developments that came of it, like scratch resistant lenses, flame retardant materials, composites, memory foam, UV-blocking sunglasses, etc.

This may be corny and trite, but one of the best by-products may have been national pride.

[BOOOGHAR]

because of the space program is why you will find Tang in my pantry