The Last 10 Days In The Space Shuttle's Bunker?, Atlantis apparently to be scrapped in 2008 |
The Last 10 Days In The Space Shuttle's Bunker?, Atlantis apparently to be scrapped in 2008 |
Guest_BruceMoomaw_* |
Feb 21 2006, 03:05 AM
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http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060...lantis_spa.html :
"Under orders to retire the shuttle fleet by 2010, NASA plans to cancel shuttle Atlantis' next scheduled overhaul and mothball the ship in 2008. "Rather than becoming a museum piece, however, Atlantis will serve as a spare parts donor for sister ships Discovery and Endeavour to complete assembly of the International Space Station. " 'People are already calling us and asking us can they display one of our orbiters in their museum after we're done. I'm not giving anybody anything until we're all agreed the station is complete and the shuttles' job is done,' shuttle program manager Wayne Hale told Kennedy Space Center employees during a televised address on Friday. " 'We're going to keep (Atlantis) in as near flight-ready condition as we can without putting it through a (modification and overhaul) so we can use those parts,' Hale said. ____________________ Jeffrey Bell has recently finished a piece for "SpaceDaily" proclaiming that the wholesale cancellation of other NASA projects in the FY 2007 budget to keep Shuttle and ISS going is actually just part of Michael Griffin's Machiavellian strategy to get both of the cancelled, by making it clear that they can be saved now only at the cost of a swarm of other projects (including Bush's lunar program) which are now more popular. Certainly that is the overwhelming message being conveyed, whether Griffin planned it that way or not -- I haven't seen a single newspaper editorial yet that favors retaining Shuttle at this point. (Bell also claims to see other, subtler evidence of this strategy in Griffin's moves over the last few weeks -- and also signs that he definitely plans to throw ISS from the train as well, by just giving it to the Russians half-finished in a few years and paying off the ESA and Japan for their unlaunched space lab modules. These include the fact that he's cancelled work on the unmanned cargo variant of the Crew Exploration Vehicle that will be necessary to take up replacement Control Moment Gyros to the ISS after the Shuttle is no longer available.) |
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Guest_Richard Trigaux_* |
Feb 21 2006, 05:34 PM
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When I think back twenty years ago, when the shuttle program was starting, all the hope we invested in it: cheap, easy, safe access to space, going in orbit as easily as we go in holidays, send up there tourists, scientists, artists, space stations, large science facilities, factories... and where we are now...
NASA is not the culprit: all the other shuttle programs were canceled, and space remains expensive, dangerous and difficult. There will perhaps not be a PRACTICAL space station and flight to Mars before several decades, and, unless something really new is discovered, there will never be easy cheap access to space. In facts the idea of the space shuttle came not from scientists and not from engineers, it came from science fiction. And we all tried to realize a scifi dream. Sometimes it is a good idea. Sometimes not. Let us search for something else for an easy access to space. Starting with what we know to do. Large aircraft or huge baloon at high altitude, perhaps? Would a very large aircraft such an A380 be able to hauld a rocket stage at high altitude? Certainly yes, but how large? For small satellites perhaps. |
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Feb 21 2006, 10:32 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
In facts the idea of the space shuttle came not from scientists and not from engineers, it came from science fiction. Richard: No, I don't really think so! The 'spaceplane' concept came largely from German engineer Dr. Eugen Sänger who researched many rocketry technologies, such as regeneratively cooled liquid-fueled engines. After WWII, Bell Aircraft Corporation undertook the BOMI and ROBO studies of round the world spaceplanes, which appeared to offer many advantages of artillery-derived rockets. From these seeds came a whole range of spaceplane projects, and science fiction merely reiterated the concepts - remember that Arthur C Clarke was active in the BIS before he wrote fiction! http://www.luft46.com/misc/sanger.html Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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Feb 22 2006, 08:46 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2492 Joined: 15-January 05 From: center Italy Member No.: 150 |
The 'spaceplane' concept came largely from German engineer Dr. Eugen Sänger who researched many rocketry technologies, such as regeneratively cooled liquid-fueled engines. Perhaps slightly OT, I knew the Sanger project and I remember also a modern spaceplane project called "Sanger", in honor of this projectist. In the image I saw, it was a beautiful, very aveniristic model but I cannot find any info on that. Someone can help? -------------------- I always think before posting! - Marco -
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Feb 22 2006, 10:55 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
Perhaps slightly OT, I knew the Sanger project and I remember also a modern spaceplane project called "Sanger", in honor of this projectist. In the image I saw, it was a beautiful, very aveniristic model but I cannot find any info on that. Someone can help? Marco: Try looking at: http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/saegerii.htm Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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Feb 23 2006, 07:12 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2492 Joined: 15-January 05 From: center Italy Member No.: 150 |
Thank you very much, Bob. -------------------- I always think before posting! - Marco -
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