Is NASA dead

Now NASA won't be distracted with accomplishments and can harvest a cash crop grown in "Climate Change".

The station is routinely boosted by engines built into the Russian Zvezda module, by Progress capsule engines, and by other robotic delivery trucks that arrive regularly.

Hopefully, the people will have phased them out along with the other

75% of useless bureaucracies within our government, allowing us to end deficit spending and pay off the debt, and then reduce taxation.

-- Progress is the product of human agency. Things get better because we make them better. Things go wrong when we get too comfortable, when we fail to take risks or seize opportunities. -- Susan Rice

That's what scares me: Did Hanson and cronies just get a raise? They're worse than OSHA, if you can believe that.

-- Progress is the product of human agency. Things get better because we make them better. Things go wrong when we get too comfortable, when we fail to take risks or seize opportunities. -- Susan Rice

In case you didn't notice the shuttle carried just a few large items up there that NOTHING else could have carried. Also take a look at the Hubble, without the shuttle it would be a piece of useless junk.

There is also nothing to prevent the soviets from saying that we cannot catch a ride.

Been that way for years. All the way back to the Apollo era.

I'd strongly agree with John's sentiments here.

The Shuttle was "supposed" to be a cheap way to get to orbit. But it was designed by committees (some of whom had a hard on for it - like the USAF).

It turned out to be a 1953 Chevy space pickup truck - low orbit only.

And it turned out to be WAY more expensive to operate than was intended.

And more dangerous than intended.

An argument could be offered that the Shuttle itself is the cause of the space agency losing it's future. We it less expensive and less dangerous it could be kept going for many more years.

Bucks per pound delivered to orbit is one serious parameter. Having more life capability than needed for the job really means the job cost more.

But the on-orbit hands-on repair capability (Hubble) and the retrieval capability were something special. Low orbit only didn't hurt there, because that where the work was to be found.

But no way to take it to the moon, say. Or even a really high orbit. (what goes up higher comes down much faster!)

But as a delivery truck for the Maytag Satellite Repair crew? Priceless...

The true technological sin here was breaking up the Saturn V tooling.

That was something special...

Moving it out to high orbit would possibly pin it up there forever. But reentry from that high gets a little dicey.

CaveLamb wrote: One lousy beer and my fingers don't know me...

(Edit)

My mom worked for NASA for all of her adult life. She said that grants and other money was their major concern, science was secondary.

Then maybe we'd finally get sensible and send up experiments in remotely controlled modules.

Without the expense of the shuttle we could have sent up 20 Hubbles and 20 times as many planetary probes.

But the public likes to see astronauts go up. A cheap probe can learn a lot more than an astronaut in the same low orbit they were in 50 years ago, but the public wants adventure and doesn't care if anything is learned or not.

Definitely.

People will be needed on planetary missions when we can do them, but that will require new propulsion technology that NASA chose not to develop in favor of funding the shuttle.

Satellite return was done once, just to test the concept. It was never necessary.

Incredible thing to do.

The Hall of Science Museum in NYC had the base of a Saturn V stage 1, with the main engines and about 20 feet of the rocket above them. It was removed to who-knows-where.

If you know so much about space exploration, why aren't you in charge of NASA?

I might as well ask, "Why aren't you President?"

It's always been necessary. When you buy a computer or other electronic device these days the price includes a fee to dispose of the trash the device becomes once it's become scrap. Low Earth has become a flying junk yard that's continuing to be added to much faster than it self recycles. Cleaning up that mess would have and should have been one of the Shuttle's primary missions. That would have meant fewer glorified professors as mission specialists, of course, but who really cares about flying PHD's into space. Most of what these over qualified Bozo's did could have been automated altogether and flown unmanned.