A farewell to the Space Shuttle program

[Twigsoffury]

[mDust]

I wish I could go watch the last launch. I've never seen one.

Was it budget problems, safety issues, or what that forced the retirement of the shuttle with no immediate replacement?

[SXRguyinMA]

Was it budget problems, safety issues, or what that forced the retirement of the shuttle with no immediate replacement?

it was Obama who put the smackdown on the space program. He thinks going to space is meaningless and the gov't shouldn't spend $$ on it anymore, and to leave it to private companies. F**K YOU OBAMA

[OvRiDe]

Gee Will.. I wish you would just quit beating around the bush, and just tell us what you think..

As far as I know the Space Shuttle program ran its course. It ended as scheduled from the beginning of the program. The problem is it was going to be replaced by the Constellation Program which would have used the Ares launch vehicle. This is where the current Administration decided to not fund the Constellation program which pretty much left us dead in the water. Instead they figured we can just hitch rides with the Ruskies who promptly raised the price after we cut our funding.

[x88x]

It is a sad day for our country, imo. The end of an era. We took great leaps and strides in the last half century; climbing into space, to the moon even...and now we are for all intents and purposes stranded here on this rock once again; dependent on the good graces of our (metaphorical) neighbor (Russia) to even get into orbit.

As for why, I believe it was a combination of safety and budget problems. Really though, it boils down to budget. The shuttles reached EOL and there hadn't been any development, or budgeting for development, of a replacement. They were working on a replacement with the Ares rockets in the Constellation program, but the entire Constellation program got scrapped last year because of (surprise, surprise) budget problems. The Russian Federal Space Agency has apparently been working on a reusable shuttle (the Kliper project), but that also appears to have been shelved due to lack of funding. Honestly, I think the only way we're ever going to get a replacement at this point is through private development.

[Twigsoffury]

I don't care about budgets i want my flying space Cadillac back.

[Cale_Hagan]

you know it is scary that we know more about space than our deepest oceans.... you know the old saying, invest at home, before elsewhere? same with earth. look to the oceans, now.

[blaze15301]

Great we are going to outsource our space program like we do everything else now.

[Twigsoffury]

you know it is scary that we know more about space than our deepest oceans.... you know the old saying, invest at home, before elsewhere? same with earth. look to the oceans, now.

we can't live on our planet forever if we are to survive.

[NightrainSrt4]

Barring a celestial catastrophe, we could if we didn't treat the earth so poorly and people stopped pumping out large quantities of children.