Remembering the Space Shuttle

[K.A.S.A.]

I miss hearing about NASA sending shuttles to space. I would give ANYTHING to see a live shuttle launch. (Going to need a time machine, tho!)

[vger]

A part of my inner child died when the shuttle program ended, and I don't think it's ever coming back.

[K.A.S.A.]

I know, right!

[K.A.S.A.]

On this date in 2008 space shuttle Discovery returned from the ISS on STS-124 and landed safely at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

[Redjoker]

I also wish I had gotten to see a shuttle launch. My family and I attempted to see one of the last of them from a nearby beach but, the launch was scrubbed both days.

[Virtualgenius]

They will just be using really big rockets instead

[Special Agent Sigvan]

I want to go too space...

So I can screw it up.

[The Destroyer]

The space shuttle was costing more to repair it than saved by being reusable...

[Motokid600]

I was never a fan of the shuttle. Only because it lacked an LES. ... And the negligence that got two crews killed.

[Duxwing]

Requiescat in pace--sub astra, post aspera: et tu, astro-navigator, audaces Fortuna iuvat!

(Rest in peace--under the stars, after adversity: and you, star-navigator, Fortune favores the bold!)

-Duxwing

[bsalis]

Yep - It's one of those bucket list things that never came to pass for me. Watching a Shuttle launch there on site.

Hopefully when NASA get the next human launch system running I will be able to watch one of those.

[xtremespino]

The shuttle was good in some ways, but it lack some features and was due for retirement. I just wish NASA had another way into space for humans before they cancelled it instead of developing everything now.

[K.A.S.A.]

True, it did cost a lot of money to do the shuttle program, but you've got to admit that it looked pretty darn cool to see that huge vehicle lift off time and time again! I am excited, however, for the Sierra Nevada Dreamchaser which will be the next reusable spacecraft!

[vger]

Yep - It's one of those bucket list things that never came to pass for me. Watching a Shuttle launch there on site.

Hopefully when NASA get the next human launch system running I will be able to watch one of those.

Just completely impractical for me. It's a 2-day road trip to Kennedy, and with how often flights get rescheduled, not a chance.

[FishInferno]

The space shuttle was very advanced, but it was inefficient and didn't live up to wat it was I tended to be. It was very cool, but considering we could have funded a moon mission instead of 3 shuttle flights, I am glad to see it go. Unmanned rockets for satellites and dreamchaser-like crew shuttles are the way to go IMO.

I did see a shuttle launch once, not at KSC, but from a beach down the coast. I was in second grade and I was just awestruck.

[the_bT]

With the space shuttle I always wonder one thing. There is only really one thing it could do that no other system can do and that is bring heavy stuff back from orbit. Why would you develop such technology

And the whole re-useability deal? I don't buy that anyone really involved ever expected that to turn a profit. In the end you need to re build the whole craft each time anyway. You're just doing it with used parts Maybe if you build it smaller... but at this size?

BTW, I kinda did see a launch once. Was on vacation in Florida (from Europe so probably most distant vacation to date), and it turns out, there was a shuttle launch scheduled during the one week I was there. Went to the KSC several days before (planned that obv.) and saw the shuttle on the launch pad from the bus. To my surprise () the guide says: "As we launch the shuttle in 48 hours we can't go closer that this, sorry." The launch itself I didn't see up close, saw only a thin white line going into the sky. Still cool though.

[razark]

Never got to see one launch. My family was scheduled to go once, but the ET was hit by hail, so it got delayed. Never had another chance. My father got to go for a few of them before he retired.

Closest I've seen was a satellite launch from the beach, and I did get to see the stack getting rolled out of the VAB once.

[SolarLiner]

I'm so sad I never saw a Shuttle launch in my life, the feel of the power of the two booster igniting as the shuttle lifts off, marking the beginning of a new yet great journey ...

It makes me all poetic and things

I mean, I WILL see a launch in my life, but it will never be as powerful as 5 rockets kicking off a flying brick.

[Kryten]

I mean, I WILL see a launch in my life, but it will never be as powerful as 5 rockets kicking off a flying brick.

I don't really get this attitude. Surely SLS will be pretty much exactly the same? The only difference is an extra SSME.

[xcorps]

I saw two launches, STS-2 and STS-5.

[rdfox]

Promised myself after the STS-107 accident that I'd make it to the Cape to see a Shuttle launch before the end of the program (I was born a year after Apollo-Soyuz, so the Shuttle was *the* manned space program to me, emotionally). Cut it close, but I managed to make a two-day "banzai run" drive down to Florida (550 miles a day is a LONG drive, particularly when you're driving solo!) in time to get there to see STS-135 launch, from the beach in Titusville, along with a million of my closest friends.

To this day, I regret choosing not to pay the hundred bucks to get the VIP pass to watch from the Apollo/Saturn V Center (the home of the famous seven-segment display countdown clock) and be just 3.5 miles away instead of ten, but at least I made it down to see one... even if it WAS the very last one. (I have family living relatively nearby, so had it been rescheduled for a relatively short delay, I'd have stuck it out to see the launch; delays of months, however, would have almost certainly killed my chances of seeing it at all.)

Hopefully, I'll be in a position to be able to get the VIP pass for the first or second SLS launch; I really want to experience the whole ground-shaking, guts-vibrating, feels like your eyeballs are about to pop out of your head, deafening volume you get at that relatively close range. Where I saw STS-135 from, between it being ten miles away and the breeze blowing from behind me towards the pad, it really wasn't any louder (perceived) than the F-16s circling nearby to make sure nobody wandered into the launch area with his Cessna...

[BadRocketsCo.]

I will most likely never see an rocket launch, because I live so far away from every possible launch site in the world

[the_bT]

I will most likely never see an rocket launch, because I live so far away from every possible launch site in the world

Gotta launch one yourself

[Javster]

Just completely impractical for me. It's a 2-day road trip to Kennedy, and with how often flights get rescheduled, not a chance.

At least you're on the same continent!

Starting to wonder whether I'd have a better chance going to Baikonur...

Edited June 22, 2014 by Javster

[Uberlyuber]

Well, I surely am excited for what will come next.

But I still miss you, shuttle

Still, after over 130 flights, the faliure of the shuttle really was realized; also once it was stated that all flights were to the ISS, there wasn't much use for it after that, other than crew and/or resuplying, which would could be done much cheaper on a conventional rocket. Still, the shuttle earned her place in history, with doing sattelite repairs, launching Hubble, etc. We will miss you, shuttle. ;_;7

In the meantime, I am really excited about the dragon v2, which won't have a single chute, it lands purely on engines alone, same for the rocket stages as well A true succesor to the STS that is. Add SLS, and the volcano of amazing things in space that the US will do is destined to erupt soon.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Uberlyuber