Goodbye NASA

[easternflame]

The fact they don't have any more shuttles doesn't mean anything... Look at apolos

 

[Asmundr]

Its space or bust for humanity in the future, why would they cut funding by so much?

Sadface

Because most people now are solely focusing on themselves in a manner of speaking. Why spend money on the exploration of space and later, the colonization of it, when that money can be spent solving all our problems here on Earth?

Some people really don't have a concept of the longevity of this species. Space is where the future of humanity lies. It is where we as a species will look back down on the Earth and notice that our boarders, our difference are small, trivial things and that we are all human.

Call my notions romanticizing space but this is what I honestly believe.

 

[Chrono212]

I can say, proudly, that I was there to see the last launch.

I can also say, with some authority, that NASA is not dead.
My uncle, whom I am staying with right now, and he is a Senoir Lead Engineer [footnote]in fact if anyone goes to Kennedy Space Center's Explorers Wanted Exibition he is the first of the recorded speakers[/footnote] which allows me to see inside the inner workings of NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
What NASA is suffering from right now is a lack of budget and Congress approved Shuttle replacement.
Low Earth Orbit is now the preserve of private space industries, that is, in terms of the United States.
NASA will now focus on Deep Space. That means the Moon and beyond (asteroids, Mars etc.).
Unfortunately, the Constellation Program was canceled meaning that the Shuttles replacement was cancelled, the return to the Moon was cancelled and the stepping stone to Mars was cancelled all in one go.
However, SpaceX and other similar private companies are likely to follow the example of the European Space Agency's example of unmanned resupply capsules and send them to the International Space Station. This is hopefully going to happen in one to two years.
With more hope and luck, private industry will be testing manned capsules within 3-4 years.

So, as you can hopefully see, NASA isn't dead, it's just a lost for the moment but these people aren't stupid so they've been planning what to do next for years.
As with everything, it's money and politics standing in the way.

 

[Norendithas]

Wait, Goodbye NASA? Did I miss something? I thought that only the current shuttles will be retired and that it's the last flight of a shuttle but the space program will continue with different spacecrafts and NASA will continue as well.

Without the space shuttles, NASA will rely on Russian Soyuz vehicles to ferry astronauts to and from the space station, which is slated to operate until at least 2020. The agency wants private American craft to take over this taxi service eventually, but that probably won't happen for at least four or five years.

For its part, NASA has begun shifting its focus beyond low-Earth orbit. Last year, President Barack Obama charged the space agency with sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, and then on to Mars by the mid-2030s.

As exciting as both of these exploration prospects are, they remain far off, both in space and time. Right now, most thoughts are with Atlantis as it streaks toward the space station, its final mission closing out the life of a spacecraft that came to represent a nation in many ways.

Over the years, the space shuttle became a symbol of America, its ambitious goals and its technological know-how, experts say.

"The shuttle became a very powerful icon," Roger Launius, space history curator at the National Air and Space Museum, told SPACE.com, "just as serviceable an icon as the astronauts landing on the moon, in terms of national prestige abroad and pride at home."

While yes, astronauts will still be able to continue with trips to Earth's inner-space, just that it will not be through NASA. It will end up being through the Russians. Which no offense to the Russians, that's just unfavorable to think of rather than picturing our shuttles with NASA. I'm not sure about NASA continuing with other vehicles, but I am sure they'd have to come up with something if they wanted to send astronauts to asteroids and mars. So it's for the most part just the death of the Shuttle program, which is a sad thought to many. Oh, and budget cuts.

 

[teebeeohh]

space travel was never economically viable, the only reason for people to be on the moon was to 1-up the soviets. Space explorations has always been a prestige project and right now nobody has the money to do that. maybe china, what about their space program?

 

[Zorak the Mantis]

stop freaking people, NASA isn't going anywhere. They just shut down the shuttle program, there are dozens of other NASA programs up and running that we need.

 

[Wicky_42]

it's the shuttles that are gone, not NASA. Hopefully commercial and private solutions to getting into space will continue progressing and NASA can put their budget into making cooler technology than merely the means to get it up there.

Still, the shuttle was kinda iconic, sad to see it go, but hopeful a better solution will present itself over the next decade. Hopefully before the world ends

 

[Amphoteric]

NASA isn't going anywhere...

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/07/space-shuttle-lifts-off-for-th.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Their budget needs to be quadrupled though.

 

[the spud]

Well, shit.

It looks about time to start that island nation doom fortress project I was planning (it will be like the real life rapture).

All the top scientists will be there. We will make our own shuttle, which will be way better than the old one.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

There's still the Russians, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese going up in the air. We've been cooperating because we can't afford to go solo - perhaps NASA wants to help out now as well?

 

[King Toasty]

The shuttles are 20-year-old obsolete bricks. they were pricey, only went low-earth orbit, and needed to be heavily repaired every time they landed.

It's a very, very good thing it's being cancelled. They would have done it years ago, but designing spacecraft is expensive.

 

[spectrenihlus]

Seriously the space shuttles were old. Yes I agree that it is kind of silly to stop the program without a replacement in place but it isn't the end of NASA. Plus we always have private corporations doing their own stuff as well.

 

[King Toasty]

I can say, proudly, that I was there to see the last launch.

I can also say, with some authority, that NASA is not dead.
My uncle, whom I am staying with right now, and he is a Senoir Lead Engineer [footnote]in fact if anyone goes to Kennedy Space Center's Explorers Wanted Exibition he is the first of the recorded speakers[/footnote] which allows me to see inside the inner workings of NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
What NASA is suffering from right now is a lack of budget and Congress approved Shuttle replacement.
Low Earth Orbit is now the preserve of private space industries, that is, in terms of the United States.
NASA will now focus on Deep Space. That means the Moon and beyond (asteroids, Mars etc.).
Unfortunately, the Constellation Program was canceled meaning that the Shuttles replacement was cancelled, the return to the Moon was cancelled and the stepping stone to Mars was cancelled all in one go.
However, SpaceX and other similar private companies are likely to follow the example of the European Space Agency's example of unmanned resupply capsules and send them to the International Space Station. This is hopefully going to happen in one to two years.
With more hope and luck, private industry will be testing manned capsules within 3-4 years.

So, as you can hopefully see, NASA isn't dead, it's just a lost for the moment but these people aren't stupid so they've been planning what to do next for years.
As with everything, it's money and politics standing in the way.

Hot damn, color me jealous. Getting to see the launches up-close? Sweet.

I've been following those private companies recently, and I think they're best for the future of space travel- they have tech, dedicated people, and a desire to save money. I just hope NASA can get back on it's feat, but with upcoming budget cuts, it seems unlikely.


Which sucks, because damn, I want a Mars base before I die.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

NASA has done a great deal of good to help us learn about the universe and I am disappointed that it will be gone. We do need the $ elsewhere atm its a sad fact but its true.

Where do you need the $, really (not sarcasm, honest question)? And why isn't the American Government cutting some of the funding for the army?

Oh I forgot, our world isn't about discoveries and transcendence of our species. It's about greedy fucks trying to own the god damn world and make people forget what really matters , making them interested in irrelevant bullshit and ultimately controlling each and every one of us like the cattle that we are. Silly me

Sad news indeed. Faith in humanity -1

 

[Chrono212]

I can say, proudly, that I was there to see the last launch.

I can also say, with some authority, that NASA is not dead.
My uncle, whom I am staying with right now, and he is a Senoir Lead Engineer [footnote]in fact if anyone goes to Kennedy Space Center's Explorers Wanted Exibition he is the first of the recorded speakers[/footnote] which allows me to see inside the inner workings of NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
What NASA is suffering from right now is a lack of budget and Congress approved Shuttle replacement.
Low Earth Orbit is now the preserve of private space industries, that is, in terms of the United States.
NASA will now focus on Deep Space. That means the Moon and beyond (asteroids, Mars etc.).
Unfortunately, the Constellation Program was canceled meaning that the Shuttles replacement was cancelled, the return to the Moon was cancelled and the stepping stone to Mars was cancelled all in one go.
However, SpaceX and other similar private companies are likely to follow the example of the European Space Agency's example of unmanned resupply capsules and send them to the International Space Station. This is hopefully going to happen in one to two years.
With more hope and luck, private industry will be testing manned capsules within 3-4 years.

So, as you can hopefully see, NASA isn't dead, it's just a lost for the moment but these people aren't stupid so they've been planning what to do next for years.
As with everything, it's money and politics standing in the way.

Hot damn, color me jealous. Getting to see the launches up-close? Sweet.

I've been following those private companies recently, and I think they're best for the future of space travel- they have tech, dedicated people, and a desire to save money. I just hope NASA can get back on it's feat, but with upcoming budget cuts, it seems unlikely.


Which sucks, because damn, I want a Mars base before I die.

The USAF gets a bigger space budget than the whole of NASA.
And you know what they did? Just three days ago they asked for $500,000 to transport a scientific team (including my uncle) to north Canada.
This is after 15 years of doing the same thing for free.
Impressed? I'm certainly not.

 

[ultimateownage]

NASA isn't going. They just aren't doing loads of pointless Shuttle Launches that waste money (I'm not saying ALL of them are pointless).
I'm not sure whether them going or not makes this more appropriate:

 

[RA92]

Okay. Anyone else want to see the new line of space faring craft yet?

I do indeed.

Back to the drawing board!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Space_Shuttle_concepts.jpg

Edit:



Or just add some boosters to this fucker (they'll be sitting around doing nothing with the F-35 at hand, right?) and send it to space. It's already doing supersonic speeds at vertical climbs and shooting down satellites.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/ASAT_missile_launch.jpg/453px-ASAT_missile_launch.jpg

I say it in jest.

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

Before I didn't comment when a similar thread came up because I couldn't find the relevent figure.

Now I have. It comes from Brian Cox's plea for the continued support of curiosity-based science [http://www.ted.com/talks/brian_cox_why_we_need_the_explorers.html] about a year ago.

He noted that for every dollar that we invested into the Apollo moon shots [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program], fourteen returned back into the US economy (according to the latest study conducted by Chase). So the idea that we shouldn't or cannot afford to fund NASA (or any other curiosity-based science program) is bullocks.

No, NASA is getting penalized for its recent array of projects that would provide more real data (and probably confirm) that causes for climate change are largely anthropomorphic, data our house-dominating Republicans don't want us to know. (In fact, they tried to extort the EPA [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epa] from enforcing greenhouse gas emission limits by decreeing none of their budget can be used to that effect.)

But the Second Coming [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOP] is immanent (will occur before 2030CE), hence there is no need to consider the preservation of the US or the Earth for future generations.

238U.

 

[ultimateownage]

NASA has done a great deal of good to help us learn about the universe and I am disappointed that it will be gone. We do need the $ elsewhere atm its a sad fact but its true.

Where do you need the $, really (not sarcasm, honest question)? And why isn't the American Government cutting some of the funding for the army?

Oh I forgot, our world isn't about discoveries and transcendence of our species. It's about greedy fucks trying to own the god damn world and make people forget what really matters , making them interested in irrelevant bullshit and ultimately controlling each and every one of us like the cattle that we are. Silly me

Sad news indeed. Faith in humanity -1

"It's about greedy fucks trying to own the god damn world"
No, those are the people they are (apparently) fighting. The fighting you want to just 'get rid of' as if that has no consequences. Lots of things need money more urgently than finding out how things totally beyond are control work or look.
NASA is good, but it's also not a necessity. You want to see money get wasted on shit, while important things are ignored? Go look at British Politics.

 

[DJ_DEnM]

Space is overrated, We're probably gonna go to space again in like 5 years for an excuse.