Discovery is safely inside Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building, where the orbiter will be assembled into a shuttle stack likely for the last time. Discovery backed out of its hangar just before 7 a.m. today -- a day later than planned because of a water main break that closed the center Wednesday morning.
Transporter drivers then parked for several hours on the towway next to a cordoned off area where hundreds of employees had the chance to take photos in front of the spacecraft.
The "morale event" is one of many NASA has tried to arrange, if weather and technical conditions permit, to show appreciation to employees as the program nears retirement. A similar photo op is planned when Discovery rolls on to the launch pad later this month, before the pad's rotating tower is closed. The rollout is planned to start late Sept. 20.
Later today, workers will lift Discovery in a sling and hoist it into a high bay for connection to an external tank and solid rocket boosters atop a mobile launcher platform.
Discovery is preparing for its final scheduled launch on Nov. 1. -- one of two more missions scheduled before the shuttle program is retired. Congress and the White House could add a third mission.
14 comments:
Without any Manned ability to reach space or the station (unless black ops and that little shuttle that flew exactly once and is still up there ) we are cutting our own throats .Now only Vlad Putin controls our access .Hey maybe we could ask the Frenchies down in South America to give us a ride for a billion or so.
Even if there's a final Shuttle "third mission" funded, that will certainly be the final launch since the U.S. has no capability to produce another external tank after that. And whenever that final Shuttle launch happens (whether it's Feb 28 or in June), at that point the winner of the Space Race will have no way to get its own astronauts into space - other than to ask for a ride with another country. We need to be the leaders in space exploration, not just being along for the ride. Where is the next "Kennedy" to create that vision?
I keep hearing that congress could add another mission. Are boosters and tanks available for a rescue mission, if required, for this added flight?
The end of the shuttle program is the end of AMERICA being the leader. I pay alot of taxes and do not mind seeing it spent on the "space race". I think this is pure "BS". Its a disgrace to the american people to end this. Look at all of the money that has been spent and we will not be able to put our own people into space. I think Congress should make funds available to continue this program. The so called bugs are worked out and its working.
Why fly our own birds, seems the current regime likes to pay the Ruskies 56 mil per seat and it will only go up! America in retreat on the space front thats for sure, oh wait Americas in retreat in a lot of areas thanks to this administration, burt nothing ticks me off more than ceading our leadership in space. Might as well paint the Ruskie flag on the ISS because we have basicly given it to them, after all they now control all access to it dont they?
It would have to be to the Space station and Astronauts would have to come home if damage on launch was too excessive to repair piecemeal on 40 year (or more) old design Soyuz . Jettison the Shuttle to burn up empty.
ANTAGONIST = GLORIFIED SOCIAL WELFARE RECIPIENT
She's looking rough.
Hey Antagonist. It's not that anonymous when you post the same old same old you always do.
It's a shame Obama can't keep his campaign promise about his "vision" for the future of the space program. Maybe he was just saying that to win the Brevard county vote.
Hopefully in a couple months we'll see reason to hope for change.
I just hope they keep saying "likely last" this and that. We can always have hope.
I said it elswhere on here JFK is spinning in his grave.! He would be very very critical of the mess that's happening now. Not in my line of thought, a very good way to carry forward his legacy.Many of the brave men who were involved during the sixties programmes, are really quietly annoyed at whats happening now. And god only knows what Dr Von Braun would think..!!
Bruce, I'm thinking the same thing. With Atlantis, there was a better than not chance the last mission was not her last, so to say "last scheduled mission" was rather valid. But with this mission, to see "last scheduled mission" gives me a glimmer of hope. I know it is indeed technically the last scheduled mission, but reading between the lines says you just never know. What are the odds? Not good at all. But...you just never know. Yes, it will take a while to start making tanks again, and getting crews trained, but this program has had two big gaps already and it survived.
I think the decision would have to be made before Discovery lands, though. Once NASA starts mothballing her for display, I think that's the point of no return.
It's nice to read so many pro-shuttle posts together.
When Bush canceled the Shuttle program four years ago and ordered the ISS canceled as well, no locals objected. When he cut off all the logistics contracts, making the program unsustainable, no one locally objected. When he created Constellation and refused to spend any money on it, no one objected. When Obama was elected, NASA failed to offer any solution; Obama at least managed to save ISS, otherwise we would have nothing. But now all the locals blame Obama. Go figure.
Does anyone but me think that the Russians are capable of refusing to fly our astronauts after the current contact ends? If they did that, there isn't a damn thing we could do about it. They could turn it into the first military outpost in space or something worse. I know it sounds far-fetched but the Russians are NOT to be trusted any longer. I certainly hope the federal government is considering this as possible scenario.
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