Replies

I’m a little surprised at the attitude that we’ve been wasting our time for the last 25+ years with the Space Shuttle.
We’ve accomplished something pretty extraordinary with the construction of the ISS. We were on a path that would have led us to much easier access to space. We have to develop some sort of air/space craft that can fly to and from space again and again, not just one or two shots and throw it away. We designed and built a space station to prove the technology required to build a true spaceship that can fly to other planets.
If we are going to fly to other planets we have to know how this technology and humans fare in space over long periods of time. These are not the little tin cans we sent to the moon and back, but rather intricate machines that could have led to the development of the vehicles we need to explore our galaxy.
I’ve said this before on another thread, but, which makes more sense, an experimental platform, close to earth and rescue, to test our technology and see how humans fare in space over long periods of time, or a capsule arriving at Mars after 3 months, only to find out something was wrong with no way of fixing it, or helping the astronauts?
We had quite a problem with the flood lights in the cargo bay, they would short out in space but no matter how closely we duplicated what they were exposed to in space we could not replicate the problem.
I’m one of the lucky ones, I’ll be coming to work Monday, but I am losing quite a few friends today. We are not government employees, we work for a company that was awarded a contract by NASA.
I do wish someone had had the foresight to propose a follow up program to the Shuttle that would have expounded on everything we’ve learn over the last 25+ years, but...