Hey guys I wonder if any of you are currently watching the live feed from NASA on Space Shuttle Atlantis's last mission? Can't believe I missed the launch!

My face is on that flight

Anyone care to tell me the background story for this launch? What is the goal with it?

Quote from The Very End :

Anyone care to tell me the background story for this launch? What is the goal with it?

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/index.html

So if I get this right, it's the last space shuttle with people in it? If that's true we're reached the end of an era :O

Quote from The Very End :

Anyone care to tell me the background story for this launch? What is the goal with it?

it's the last one nasa is launching with their current fleet of spacecraft. they're going to have to rely on the russians for a while unless civilians discover an easy way to get up there. speaking of which, what ever happened to that space elevator idea?

as for the goal, did they ever need a goal to go into space?

Haha, so the economic ended it all in the end, what a shame
I would laugh my tits off if the russian discovers aliens or some shit now, I can only guess how much that would piss off America

Russians are awesome.

Quote from The Very End :

Anyone care to tell me the background story for this launch? What is the goal with it?

The goal was to complete the construction of ISS(even though it's not 100% complete), like on pretty much every mission since 2003...ish. They hadn't used the SpaceLab for ages after the Columbia disaster, though they did launch probes from the cargo bay and serviced the Hubble in the cargo bay. Also it was the final mission... They had the money to launch the shuttles for nearly 30 years(yes, including the time when the economy went kaput) and now suddently they don't... I really hope they'll bring the CSTS program to life to keep the shuttles running.

All I can say is f**k you Obama, f**k you.

Edit: Myffe... my face is on that flight aswell

Here's a link to the CSTS thing I was on about - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S ... ent_vehicles_and_services

Thanks for the background story
As you say I agree that it's a shame that they shutting down the program. "The Final Frontier" should be explored, understanded, not just let us accept that it's "out there" :/
I want ze mysteries of the space to be understanded, and for that we need the space program and the pioneers.

Hopefully NASA gets more funding for further development of the Orion and Ares systems. We haven't left LEO since 1970s. It's time for humans to go further.

One hour to go till the final docking with the ISS, they began the Rendezvous-something rather pitch maneuver right now.

Quote from The Very End :

I want ze mysteries of the space to be understanded, and for that we need the space program and the pioneers.

we need faster means of interstellar propulsion, and a new means of getting spacecraft into orbit.

as it stands now, doesn't it take like a month to get to the moon?

Quote from bunder9999 :

we need faster means of interstellar propulsion, and a new means of getting spacecraft into orbit.

as it stands now, doesn't it take like a month to get to the moon?

I am not sure how long time it takes, but I know it's long enough to reach the moon

Anyhooo, sad to see the program getting shut down :/

Quote from bunder9999 :

we need faster means of interstellar propulsion, and a new means of getting spacecraft into orbit.

as it stands now, doesn't it take like a month to get to the moon?

It only took about 3-4 days to get to the moon back in the Apollo days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11

truly the end of an era. Where will we find anyone else to waste as much money as NASA?

Virgin Galactic? 250k bucks for just a short sub-orbital shot... At least it's way better than the start of the era lol.

Quote from flymike91 :

truly the end of an era. Where will we find anyone else to waste as much money as NASA?

http://www.army.mil/
http://www.airforce.com/

:rolleyes:

Quote from Crashgate3 :

http://www.army.mil/
http://www.airforce.com/

:rolleyes:

You forgot few more.

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/
http://www.defense.gov/
http://www.boeing.com/
http://www.darpa.mil/
http://www.dcma.mil/
https://www.cia.gov/
http://www.oea.gov/
http://www.mda.mil/
http://www.dtra.mil/
http://www.dtic.mil/
http://www.dau.mil/
http://www.bta.mil/
http://www.dla.mil/

Quote from flymike91 :

truly the end of an era. Where will we find anyone else to waste as much money as NASA?

Less than 1 cent of every American tax dollar is spent on NASA..

Quote from RasmusL :

Less than 1 cent of every American tax dollar is spent on NASA..

Considering I think about 3 cents is spent on Uni Education in America, that's still quite alot

Oh dear...

Air conditioning the military alone costs more than the entire annual NASA budget.

Good sire, you failed, quite miserably.