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I just watched the final launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on HDnet.
A beautiful launch, and STS-132 is safely in space heading for the ISS.
Only two more launches to go, and then the program ends.
Kind of sad.

I stopped making shuttle posts because no one seemed intersted, but maybe they are. 

It is sad that the program is coming to an end, especially now that Ares will no longer exist. NASA definately has an uncertain future now, and it bothers me.

I'm going to go watch a replay of the launch. I missed it due to school.

8-)

[quote]I stopped making shuttle posts because no one seemed intersted, but maybe they are.

[quote]I stopped making shuttle posts because no one seemed intersted, but maybe they are.

Launch Schedule:
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/highlights/schedule.html

STS-132 Launch Video:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogal ... d=13894434

STS-132 Main Page:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shutt ... index.html

8-)

Thanks Brandon! Great view of the launch..

Thanks for the links!
Does anyone know what effect the end of the shuttle program will have on the ISS?
Will it be all Russian spacecraft ferrying crews?

NASA will have to pay the Russian Space Agency to allow them to launch US Astronauts on the Soyuz craft. And yes, that will be the only manned vehicle visiting the ISS unless the ESA or a private company comes up with something. Since the US govt seems to think a private company will be able to do what took NASA 50 years in 2 or 3 years, that shouldn't be a problem.  Somehow, I don't think it will be that quick. 

8-)

Unfortunately my teacher wasn't cool enough to let us go outside...

Unfortunately my teacher wasn't cool enough to let us go outside...

Aren't they all that way?

Wow, I didn't even know one was going up.

When a Shuttle takes off from the pad, we are watching more human technology in action, than could have ever been imagined 40 years ago.

Not if you were there.

Wikipedia

Though design and construction of the Space Shuttle began in the early 1970s, conceptualization actually began two decades earlier, even before the Apollo program of the 1960s. The concept of a spacecraft returning from space to a horizontal landing begins within NACA, in 1954, in the form of an aeronautics research experiment later named the X-15.

[quote] Since the US govt seems to think a private company will be able to do what took NASA 50 years in 2 or 3 years, that shouldn't be a problem.

From what I've been reading on NASA's website, it looks like they are still planning on sending the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to ISS in 2014. There was no mention of Ares being canceled or anything either, did I miss something?