Was the footage of the Shuttle jettison off the booster cool or what?

[dhinojosa]

Holy crap! Was the footage of the Shuttle jettison off the booster f****ing cool or what?

[SteppingRazor]

1. Cool, but I couldn't get the image of wasted tax dollars out of my head

n/t

[MindPilot]

3. wasted? no freaking way

In civilized circles we call this "progress"

[MindPilot]

6. If you needed another reason to buy that big screen HDTV

this was it!!

My ass is still kicked but I really wish the commentators would just let us hear the radio chatter.

Oops this was supposed to be a response to the OP

[gristy]

9. commentators

I was watching ABC and had to mute the idiots.

[Ready4Change]

12. CNN was pretty good.

imo

[dhinojosa]

26. You know you are right....it didn't have any of the regular idiots...

this guy seemed to have done his research before talking with the nasa rep.

[Ready4Change]

32. I forget his name

But CNN's "space guy" has been consistently good. Seems pretty good on both knowlege and converting it to common lingo, and seems to have enthusiam for the subject matter.

[RebelOne]

8. I have always been 100% behind space exploration

I would rather have my tax dollars wasted on space travel than on unnecessary wars.

[SteppingRazor]

16. Perhaps I should have been more specific...

I am 100%, absolutely for space travel. Indeed, I think NASA should get a FAR larger budget han it has. Just look at the everyday products that have come to us initially through NASA R&D.
What I meant by my post is that the space shuttle is 25 years old, extremely outdated, and far too expensive, given the results it offers.
If NASA spent its money developing a shuttle that isn't reliant on solid-rocket fuel, in the meantime launching unmanned missions such as the Mars Rovers, we would be learning a lot more, and doing it for less money. Everyone benefits.

[Johonny]

18. Well

What's wrong with solid rocket fuel?

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

28. You can't shut it off.

Once a solid rocket is burning, it's on until the fuel is spent.
I believe you can get more punch per pound, as it were, but you have little control over the amount of thrust when you're using it.

I'm no rocket scientist, though. All this I remembered from high school when we were watching the first shuttle launch after the Challenger disaster.

[janx]

21. Except for the time (2001?) when the Mars probes crashed...

Not everything will be successful. This mission is important for morale. It's a good one.

[SteppingRazor]

24. Yes, the Mars probe crashed. And then...

The Mars rovers -- another unmanned mission -- taught us more about the landscape than we have ever known. If its the scientific advances and exploration of the unknown that matter most about the space program, then unmanned missions are simply more efficient. I understand and sympathize with the romantic view of manned space flight, but if we're thinking of scientific advance, should romantic notions have anyplace in the equation?

[MindPilot]

23. In my best Stewie voice: "Oh...well,then...

victory is mine." :D

[libhill]

30. How about

cleaning up this planet, and looking for alternatives to fossil fuels? Piss on wars and manned space exploration. Never A Straight Awnser (NASA) will never tell us the truth about anything out there anyway.

[Ready4Change]

11. Or "Reason for living."

What is life without exploration and adventure.

I'd far rather be out there seeing what's what, expanding our chances to spread our species to other worlds, than sitting here blindly on a rock, waiting for some lumbering disaster to end our tedious existance.

(edited for typoes.)

[dhinojosa]

4. I'd rather see that than dead bodies (ours and theirs)

Actually I'd rather see people fed and schooled. But this was something nice to see in our dreary years.

[Nabia2004]

14. You can thank the Space Program for that PC your typing on

[SteppingRazor]

17. One more time, very quickly...

I am completely for the space program. I am not for the shuttle program. It is outdated and far too expensive for the results it offers. I think NASA should fly more unmanned missions and spend more on R&D for the next generation of manned space flights.

[Redstone]

22. They should have built the DynaSoar instead of the Shuttle.

it would have been 100% re-usable, and probably safer.

Redstone

[barb162]

33. That and also how much that smoke was screwing up the atmosphere

[Richardo]

2. My ass is *still* kicked

That totally rocked.

[jojo54]

5. Totally cool.

Myself, I will never mind putting tax dollars to work on these missions....just as long as they don't bow to timeline pressures and cutting corners.

and IMHO, I think eventually we'll find other life out there. Anybody else???

[dhinojosa]

7. Yep.....but not until we drop religious fanatism.....

I don't want to go into any galactic war over god, or Ythex, as they call their god.

[Ready4Change]

13. Ythex sux

What right thinking civilization would worship a dumb diety like Ythex anyway?

Jihad! Jihad!

(kidding)

[johannes1984]

19. you're on to something

maybe we could whisper the republicans a rumor about ythex , and his pro choice , pro peace , pro happy people filth of a religion ....bet ya they'ld go right to the floor and ask for an 'alian religion regulation and registration act ' .

[dhinojosa]

25. Ythex bless America, I can't believe you said that?

Where are your moral values?

hehe

[libhill]

31. We will,

but we'll never know it, the Government will cover it up. A little green man could take a crap on the shuttle, and they'd find a way to lie about it, or explain it away.

[johannes1984]

10. all right

something ole's school cool about america on worldwide television for once .....kick ass indeed chum .....almost made me reminiscent about the good ole days :D

[datadiva]

15. Really really awsome

I have Dish and watched it on Nasa channel. You hear more and don't have to listen to the MSM commentators. I thought it was awsome.

[Goldmund]

20. You mean the fuel tank?

[dhinojosa]

27. uhhhhh.......

hehehe

[Sgent]

29. My butt

is on the otherside of the room -- Just watched the replay.

I get teary eyed every time I see one of these things. It reminds me that regardless of all the f*ckups we have, we have achieved a truley stupendeous thing. We don't have the pyramids or the colossus, this is our wonder of the world.

As for manned vs. unmanned, unmanned flights can do much of what we need, at a lower cost, science wise. However, manned flights still play a vital role in a lot of areas -- espcially when retrieval and various physiology experiments are needed. The shuttle itself is outdated and based on old technology, but I thought NASA was already developing its successor.