Actually being a Science nut, I'd actually like to see a space shuttle launch and re-entry, that is, without my TF collection, heh...

I'm kinda jealous that you live near where you can see the shuttle.

while back I was in my closet looking for a transformer to play with and I knocked down the biggest container with some big transformers in it and my cybertron wing saber broke

I am a huge shuttle freak. If that had happened to me I might have left a couple of them knocked over in tribute.

 

FWIW, the path Discovery took on re-entry was not used all that often, so this may not have been a common occurance for the original poster (can't see his name from here). I would have seen it from here near Chicago if they had de-orbited on orbit 237 instead of delaying to 238. Damn you Florida rain!

Well, on the plus side (for you at least), that was the last continental fly-by landing for an orbiter. There are 3 more flights, and they all will take the traditional gulf approach, weather permitting. I know it's easy to say at my end, but you're actually a part of history now :bounce

I am a huge shuttle freak. If that had happened to me I might have left a couple of them knocked over in tribute.

 

FWIW, the path Discovery took on re-entry was not used all that often, so this may not have been a common occurance for the original poster (can't see his name from here). I would have seen it from here near Chicago if they had de-orbited on orbit 237 instead of delaying to 238. Damn you Florida rain!

I figured it was a not used often.I dont expect this to happen again.....since Obama is scrubbing the shuttle program.We are going to pay the Russians millions to send just 1 of are ppl into space.....hello!Recession!

Nevermind.........

I am a huge shuttle freak. If that had happened to me I might have left a couple of them knocked over in tribute.

 

FWIW, the path Discovery took on re-entry was not used all that often, so this may not have been a common occurance for the original poster (can't see his name from here). I would have seen it from here near Chicago if they had de-orbited on orbit 237 instead of delaying to 238. Damn you Florida rain!

I figured it was a not used often.I dont expect this to happen again.....since Obama is scrubbing the shuttle program.We are going to pay the Russians millions to send just 1 of are ppl into space.....hello!Recession!

Nevermind.........

 

Actually, George W Bush set the Shuttle Program to retire in 2010. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_for_Space_Exploration

Well, the goals now for space flight is to do two things. The first to land or go near an asteroid. This makes practical sense. By doing this we can learn how to nudge or move large asteroids out of the way so they don't strike the planet. While this can't deflect all strikes, this will help us to move the ones that can do planet-wide damage like the one that helped to end the reign of the dinosaurs.

 

The second goal is to land on Mars. This does a lot more than just simply landing on the moon. First, it puts humans closer to the day of long term space travel. Second, it saves NASA money because this helps to create a better space ship. By not focusing first on the moon and putting the focus on Mars, you build a ship that can go to Mars and at the same time have the possibility of landing on the moon.

 

This helps to push techonology forward into leaps and bounds. Because we already landed on the moon and have done exploration there, in a sense all the techonology to go back to the moon has already been created. But if we push the moon aside and focus on Mars, techonology is forced to change with it and we get advanced computers, telecommunications, health tech, etc. This can help create ships that can allow easy exploration of the ocean floor. Just think of all the possibilities that can come if we have techonology that can get humans safely to Mars and back.

Just think of all the possibilities that can come if we have techonology that can get humans safely to Mars and back.

...but it'll still take 6 hours to fly anywhere within the country and we still would have to take our shoes off first.

 

I definitely agree though, gotta love the government funded research. Stuff like that did only lead to few things, like the Internet for one

Here the thing about outter space. When I was a kid, I friggin loved it. Anything that had to do with space fact or fiction I was in!

 

To this day, it still facinates me.

 

Now this is something that dawned on me back when Clinton was all about space and mars in the 90s. A teacher asked how exciting the possiblity was and it was a collective scoff from the class.

 

Sure mars sounded cool, but with all the awareness of aids, global warming, homelessness, Somalia, Nintendo 64, Crack, growing gang violence.....

 

Going to Mars just seemed pointless. All the billions if not trillions it would take could be aplied to any of those issues then let alone the ones facing us now.

 

Mr Wasserman (the teacher) was dumbfounded saying that when he was in school they would have been all gung ho to get to "The Red Planet" it just seemed like we had more local priorities.

 

Now think about it, we've been wasting tons of money and resourses going to space for 50 years or so for what, faulty GPS and cell phones?

 

So hey, we've been in orbit, went to and from the moon, got a space station...

 

Big F***ing Deal, none of it means jack. There's no real aplication or development to any of it so who cares?

 

'oh well we can't fall behind in the space race' why, whats the prize outside of a ton of money pissed away and bragging rights?

 

I'd rather see that money and inteligence put towards 'the cure for aids race' or 'the cleaned up alot of polution race' and the bragging rights and actual use that would come from that.

 

Mars, pfft...