Groundbreaking Photo of Shuttle Docked to Space Station: (1st ever pic!)

If there are Ufo/Aliens I wonder what they are thinking when they see this thing all togther.

Like "What the hell are those crazy humans up to now?"

Or. "Gray (man) these folks got a LONG way to go. Why did the supreme leader send us here for again?"

Or, "We have nothing to worry about, they're still using Docking Stations Ports and Orbits pffff"

Truly though. If we are the only ones in this big old universe.... what a story we are writing for History. Are future decendents will look back in awe of what we were to where we have come in relatively a short time.

If you ever get a chance, make sure you see the IMAX Space Shuttle movie. It changed me forever.

I did a thread on it but I will spare you the linking of it. But, it really is amazing to see on a large IMAX screen.

Awesome photo...now I can't get Moonraker out of my head though...

I really hope we maintain our space presence and aspirations. True, the shuttles are old tech, and way past their intended lifespans...but our lack of new development is a bit scary really.

Originally posted by OneNationUnder
I'm still wondering why the United States, a leader in Space Exploration, would let their Space Program lapse for 5 years, and, the 2012'ers can argue that it has something to do with that, since the lapse starts shortly before and several after which. It is quite suspicious. Now we have to pay others to hitch a ride or to launch certain cargo.

It REALLY seems like SOMETHING is coming and they know it, but keeping it to themselves. What major power would let their Space Program lapse? It's just absurd.

Wait, are you actually suggesting that a political decision might be *gasp* absurd??!!

SAY IT ISN'T SO!

- Cancelling the X-20 DynaSoar was absurd (but Robert MacNamara failed to see the long-term benefits of a manned reusable spacecraft).

- Abandoning Apollo & the Saturn V was absurd - It basically threw away the debugged systems and manufacturing know-how invested in these systems (but space exploration was very unpopular during the social upheaval of the '60s & '70s).

- Making a big shuttle your first reusable spacecraft was absurd - They should have started with a smaller, experimental vehicle - such as the X-20 - worked the bugs out, and scaled-up (but a "big shuttle" created more jobs than a "small shuttle", so Nixon ordered the big one built).

- Short-budgeting the Shuttle was absurd. It delayed the program, driving up the overall cost, and introduced design compromises - such as a non-reusable external tank, solid rocket boosters and fragile ceramic heat shields that compromised safety and reduced the economic viability of the launch system (but politicians did not see any purpose beyond the jobs & prestige - they expected NASA to make it work and never mind the details).

Note that the gap between the last flight of the cancelled Apollo and the first flight of the Shuttle was six years. Sound familiar? We thought that was absurd at the time.

- In the late '70s the Shuttle was expected to launch once a week (once a month for each orbiter) and be cheap enough, reliable enough and safe enough that all expendable launchers (Atlas Titan, Delta, etc.) would be obsolete and superceded in favor of these four vehicles (reduced from five due to budget cuts). This was... absurd.

- Flying the Shuttle for 30 years was absurd. Many projects for advanced reusable systems came along and were cancelled when the inadequate budgets meant that they couldn't overcome inevitable development problems. See the NASP, DCX, X-34, X-35 & VentureStar to name a few.

Politicians don't understand engineering projects in general, and space exploration in particular. Their decisions regarding them are uniformly uninformed, short-sighted and... Absurd.

Originally posted by anon72
reply to post by jaydeePNW

 

Now if they can get a picture of a real UFO then that would be groundbreaking!

I dare to differ from you statement.

I would say that type of event would be Earth Shaking....

Why not both?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4f8b63b37965.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by Saint Exupery


Man, I missed this post. I am glad I checked back (nice photo for the Groud Breaking/Earth Shattering )

I didn't know all this stuff.

I think that is why I like the Space Ex Topic threads most of all. The knowledge displayed by ATS members just blows me away.

thanks

The story behind Paolo’s Space Station photos:
www.esa.int...

reply to post by hateeternal


Wow, thank you.

I am so glad I circle back and check on older threads.

I love the ATS members participation.

reply to post by hateeternal


This is great insight on the complexities of the space programs. The expectations of the hoax theorists want to believe everyone has a GeoEye 1.1 meter diameter primary mirror in orbit in their cell phones delivering unreasonably high resolution photos of anywhere imaginable including the moon and Mars when quite simply a platform to launch such a spacecraft is considered to be a waste of resources, though closer to home such technology does exist, just not everywhere.