[GonzoGOP]

The funding of the Shuttle program was first announced publically while the Apollo 11 astronauts were still on the moon.

Nitpick correction, but a cool one. It was Apollo 16 that was on the moon when the funding got approved. John Young, the first shuttle commander, was on the moon when the ship he would later fly was approved.

[jboot]

Ah, you are right! Faulty memory at work. It's been 20 years since a bunch of us sat down and killed a weekend and a couple cases of Michelob watching all the then-available footage from all 6 landings.

Who says space geeks don't know how to have fun? ;-)