Last space shuttle launch

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iamnotaparakeet
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08 Jul 2011, 10:16 am

http://www.space.com/nasa_tv.php

The Atlantis will be launching in a few minutes.

iamnotaparakeet
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08 Jul 2011, 10:20 am

8.5 minutes to go.

iamnotaparakeet
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08 Jul 2011, 10:37 am

Now 7 minutes into powered flight safely.

TallyMan
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08 Jul 2011, 10:42 am

Are there any more shuttles left? Will the Americans be relying on the Russians to transport things to the ISS now for them?

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SammichEater
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08 Jul 2011, 10:45 am

TallyMan wrote:

Are there any more shuttles left? Will the Americans be relying on the Russians to transport things to the ISS now for them?

Yup.

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iamnotaparakeet
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08 Jul 2011, 1:27 pm

TallyMan wrote:

Are there any more shuttles left? Will the Americans be relying on the Russians to transport things to the ISS now for them?

There are shuttles which are going to end up in museums, but not be used otherwise. Atlantis will, hopefully, safely reenter the atmosphere and land on 7:09 EDT July 20th, but yes, after that, it will primarily be the Russians and Space-X providing supplies up to the ISS. Hopefully more private companies will get involved in spaceflight and pave the way for a self sufficient space industry, but, as it is, the last flight of the space shuttle is occurring now. Atlantis will be in orbit until the 20th of this month.

KyleTheGhost
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08 Jul 2011, 1:28 pm

The shuttle era is over. What next? What awaits us in the future?

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08 Jul 2011, 1:41 pm

I thought it was a waste of money sending people into space, i'm ok with sending satallites and such to take awesome pictures though

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AnonymousAnonymous
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08 Jul 2011, 1:56 pm

KyleTheGhost wrote:

The shuttle era is over. What next? What awaits us in the future?

Maybe sending people back to the Moon? :scratch:

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KyleTheGhost
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08 Jul 2011, 1:58 pm

AnonymousAnonymous wrote:

KyleTheGhost wrote:

The shuttle era is over. What next? What awaits us in the future?

Maybe sending people back to the Moon? :scratch:

I don't know why, unless we can now do something we couldn't do before?

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USMCnBNSFdude
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08 Jul 2011, 2:19 pm

Obama cancelled the Orion program to go back to the moon, so NASA is kind of scratching there heads as to whats next. I think the private sector might put the next man on the moon.

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iamnotaparakeet
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08 Jul 2011, 3:47 pm

USMCnBNSFdude wrote:

Obama cancelled the Orion program to go back to the moon, so NASA is kind of scratching there heads as to whats next. I think the private sector might put the next man on the moon.

Yes, actually. The tentative deadline is 2015 for a private sector mission to Luna, in which preparations for mining water ice will be made. Stone Aerospace plans to make an orbital "gas" station using the decomposed water, this allowing for less fuel to be used by spacecraft ascending into orbit since they can refuel for their primary missions.

iamnotaparakeet
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08 Jul 2011, 3:52 pm

KyleTheGhost wrote:

AnonymousAnonymous wrote:

KyleTheGhost wrote:

The shuttle era is over. What next? What awaits us in the future?

Maybe sending people back to the Moon? :scratch:

I don't know why, unless we can now do something we couldn't do before?

There was a whole lot that could have been, and should have been, done before, but which had never been gotten around to. It's time we do such things as mining the moon for water ice and raw construction materials, build centrifugal stations able to be used as farms and habitats so as to allow for in-space resupply of food and extension of life in orbit. We could have done that before, but we didn't. Technologically we could have colonized most of the solar system by now starting in the 70's, but people were more interested in social programs and getting high than about anything greater than themselves.

Grisha
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08 Jul 2011, 4:00 pm

Any idea if Atlantis is scheduled to land in California? I know it probably isn't unless there's supposed to be bad weather in Florida, but if it does I will run out to Edwards AFB to see it...

MXH
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08 Jul 2011, 4:10 pm

Damn, too overcasthere to see it launch. I saw 2 night launches from all the way fown south here and that was impressive from a couple hundred miles away.

iamnotaparakeet
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08 Jul 2011, 4:18 pm

Grisha wrote:

Any idea if Atlantis is scheduled to land in California? I know it probably isn't unless there's supposed to be bad weather in Florida, but if it does I will run out to Edwards AFB to see it...

I don't know. Predicting the weather twelve days out is less reliable than fortune cookies though.

Any news about the landing zone will probably be here though: http://www.space.com/12046-nasa-space-s ... ts135.html

July 20th will be reentry and landing though, regardless of where, as far as I can know about it.

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