The six astronauts scheduled to take Discovery on its last flight spoke this morning about the significance of the mission.
Commander Steve Lindsey, who will ride Discovery for the third time, said the experience is bittersweet.
"It's a privilege to be able to fly that last flight on Discovery, but it's also sad because after that it's retired," he said.
This crew's mission to the International Space Station, set to launch Nov. 1, will be Discovery's 39th more than any other orbiter.
When the shuttle returns, it will be prepped for display at the Smithsonian.
"You cannot not celebrate the history and heritage of this ship, and we plan to do that certainly after we land," Mission Specialist Mike Barratt said.
ABOUT THE IMAGES: Space shuttle Discovery's six-person stands near the flame trench of launch pad 39A. The crew left to right---Commander Steve Lindsey, pilot Eric Boe, Alvin Drew, Tim Kopra, Mike Barratt and Nicole Stott. Photo by: Michael R. Brown
8 comments:
The last mission because George Bush and Mike Griffin canceled the Shuttle program in 2005, apparently because they were bored.
Anonymous 7:58 "The last mission because George Bush and Mike Griffin canceled the Shuttle program in 2005, apparently because they were bored."
I most certainly agree,although I would have included Charles Bolden also who said that "Reaching out to the Muslim world was a top priority of the U.S. space agency." He said Obama told him one of his top priorities was to "find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering. So where's the firing squad when you need them?- signing final paychecks not the one holding the machine gun, although that might not have been a bad option either:) Mr. Bolden was busy sharing moon pies & coffee with NASA workers while giving orders of filling out their pink slips.
Freaking pisses me off.
Back to the drawing board to start all over again. Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned. The private companies won't be sitting around since the competition for govt funds will be fierce. The redundancy of NASA engineers & leaders led to the demise of our space program. Scientist that began our wonderful space program worked long hard hours to achieve results instead of collecting paychecks living off past discoveries.
" ... The last mission because George Bush and Mike Griffin canceled the Shuttle program in 2005, apparently because they were bored. ..."
OR, maybe just MAYBE, the Space Shuttle was declared unsafe at any speed.
Or just MAYBE... Obama when he came into office CHOOSE NOT to keep his promise from 2008. He knew that he wasn't going to extend the shuttle or shorten the gap before he was elected.
Let's do what any CEO would do when we want to deliver bad news. Let's form a committee (augustine) and let them soften the blow. Then we can play the silent STALOL game and drag this whole thing out beyond the point of no return. Never ever will forgive Obamabanana and will not vote for him and his puppets.
Bush canceled Shuttle and made sure it could not be restarted. Wayne Hale said it was two years too late to extend the Shuttle program because, under Bush, the supply lines had been eliminated and much of the tooling lost or destroyed. The Republicans need to accept responsibility for ending Shuttle, apparently because they were bored.
They did not fund Constellation either because they wanted more tax cuts. It is a mystery what constellation would have produced that would have been of practical value for America, since it used obsolete throw-away rockets that were too expensive to continue back during Apollo.
"The Republicans need to accept responsibility for ending Shuttle, apparently because they were bored."
Oh yeah. That's got to be it. No other explanation could possibly make sense.
"... since it used obsolete throw-away rockets that were too expensive to continue back during Apollo."
Oh, you must mean the Apollo that actually had an emergency egress system. As apposed to the shuttle which has none. You mean that apollo?
Yeah, I'd hate to go back to a safer system. That would be just AWFUL.
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