50 years of Americans in orbit

[MANT!]

On this day in 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth..

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/boeing/article/50-years-of-Americans-in-orbit-3340352.php


I was too young to remember, but my father remembers it as a time full of promise and hope for the future..



Any thoughts?

 

[RobertVA]

Pity there have been so many long gaps in US operated manned space flight.

• Apollo (Skylab support flights and Apollo/Soyuz) to Shuttle
• Challenger investigation
• Columbia investigation
• Shuttle to Commercial Crew Development (possibly Dragon in 2017?)

While the safety stand-downs after the shuttle crashes were necessary, the pity is that the US only had a single booster/manned spacecraft program ready for flights. Now we have none at all and if another stand-down becomes necessary for Soyuz there will be another period when nobody will be able to launch manned spaceflights.

 

[SchwEnt]

Damn disgrace.

In the 60s, we had the Mercury capsule, Gemini capsule, Apollo command module, Lunar Module, plus Dyna-Soar and MOL and other experimental manned spacecraft. And they were launching on Redstone and Atlas and Titan and Saturn Ib and Saturn V rockets. How many different launchers and vehicles? All designed, built, and flown in less than a decade... with rotary phones and slide rules.

Now here it is... the *future*, well into the 21st century.

Look at all the manned spacecraft we don't have.
Look at all the capabilities we have lost.

 

[MANT!]

Back in the 70s I could have told you the same thing..

Since the end of the Apollo, NASA hasn't had the budget to develop more than 1 manned booster at a time..and in order to develop that booster/spacecraft combo it has to suspend flights.. be damn glad private companies are partially filling the gap..

from 75 to 81 there were NO Americans in orbit..heck the initial shuttle DROP TESTS were treated as manned missions (to derisive laughter in the USSR).

 

[FordSVT]

Damn disgrace.

In the 60s, we had the Mercury capsule, Gemini capsule, Apollo command module, Lunar Module, plus Dyna-Soar and MOL and other experimental manned spacecraft. And they were launching on Redstone and Atlas and Titan and Saturn Ib and Saturn V rockets. How many different launchers and vehicles? All designed, built, and flown in less than a decade... with rotary phones and slide rules.

Now here it is... the *future*, well into the 21st century.

Look at all the manned spacecraft we don't have.
Look at all the capabilities we have lost.

There also isn't a USSR to perpetually force the USA to swing its dick around. People tend to gloss over the fact that the space program from WW2 to the early 80s was mostly about showing up the Communists. Apollo was simply the apex of that.

There is no money in space exploration for exploration's sake. Commercialization is still a long ways off (minus taking a few millionaires into LOE and possibly acting as a government contractor), therefore it is still the domain of public government. The cost value in spending billions of dollars a year to ferry a handful of people back and forth from the ISS just isn't there. They're working on it, but it needs to be a solution that will work for the next three decades or so in concert with whatever plans they have for the moon and Mars.

The United States is doing a lot of great things as far as robots and instrumentation and telescopic research go, but they won't put a ton of money back into their manned missions until the Chinese go to the moon and start making America look bad.

 

[Edit_XYZ]

The United States is doing a lot of great things as far as robots and instrumentation and telescopic research go, but they won't put a ton of money back into their manned missions until the Chinese go to the moon and start making America look bad.

Robotic space exploration?
USA recently 'changed its mind' and cancelled its participation in no less than 5 robotic exploration missions to be undertaken jointly with UE - missions in which hundreds of millions of euro were already invested.

Way to honor your commitments and keep your given word, USA.
At this point, claiming that USA is commited to robotic exploration - or that it is a reliable partner - is a joke.

As for manned space exploration - NASA consistently and carefully crafted a tradition for itself as conducting R&D programs which are overbudget, hugely delayed and resulting in failure.

 

[sojourner]

The U.S. hasn't cancelled anything yet. If the proposed 2013 budget for NASA passes unaltered then there will be cancellations. There is a good chance Congress will restore the funding for those missions before passing the budget. Obama's been pretty shrewd at "cutting" things only to have Congress restore funding.

Spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) is a joke.

 

[Edit_XYZ]

The U.S. hasn't cancelled anything yet. If the proposed 2013 budget for NASA passes unaltered then there will be cancellations. There is a good chance Congress will restore the funding for those missions before passing the budget. Obama's been pretty shrewd at "cutting" things only to have Congress restore funding.

Spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) is a joke.

Really?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17029019
You are actually expecting your so-called 'argument' to be convincing?


BTW, obviously, your rhetoric changes nothing to the fact that 'at this point, claiming that USA is commited to robotic exploration - or that it is a reliable partner - is a joke.'
Next time, try to come up with a funier one, sojourner.

 

[sojourner]

My rhetoric??? Point to one thing in my post that is not accurate or true. The budget has not been approved. Until then anything can change and if you followed previous NASA budgets you'd know this.

Try not to spread the FUD.

 

[publiusr]

What we see is a return to the 1970s. Had we kept the Saturns and nixed the shuttle, our BEO architecture would have been far more robust
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php/128716-NASA-to-go-nuclear
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=13741

 

[Mysterion]

In the 60s, we had the Mercury capsule, Gemini capsule, Apollo command module, Lunar Module, plus Dyna-Soar and MOL and other experimental manned spacecraft. And they were launching on Redstone and Atlas and Titan and Saturn Ib and Saturn V rockets. How many different launchers and vehicles? All designed, built, and flown in less than a decade... with rotary phones and slide rules.

Neither DynaSoar or MOL were ever flown.

 

[throwback]

The problem with the European Union states is one of perception. Many Europeans who work in the industry are beginning to or have formed the view that we are an unreliable partner. This problem began with the ISS where we withdrew support for components of the station.

I don't know why we continue to support missions whose main purpose is to determine where humans can land. We are decades away, maybe even a century away, at least before we send humans to Mars. For myself, I would cancel any missions that are considered as steps towards human exploration and concentrate attention on missions that answer scientific questions.

For myself, I think that issues of economical inequality, global climate change, and ongoing conflicts will kill any effort by humans to colonize either the Moon or Mars. Two of these factors have already played a detrimental effect on the progress of space exploration. Though I would like to think that humans may one day be out there exploring and colonizing the galaxy, I must be realistic and say that this is a dream that may be never be realized.

(Could this have happened to other civilizations, and is perhaps the reason why we haven't made contact yet? Could the issues of their world prevented them from exploring and colonizing the galaxy?)

 

[SchwEnt]

In the 60s, we had the Mercury capsule, Gemini capsule, Apollo command module, Lunar Module, plus Dyna-Soar and MOL and other experimental manned spacecraft. And they were launching on Redstone and Atlas and Titan and Saturn Ib and Saturn V rockets. How many different launchers and vehicles? All designed, built, and flown in less than a decade... with rotary phones and slide rules.

Neither DynaSoar or MOL were ever flown.

I know. But they were budgeted, planned, designed, built (if only in prototype form). You know, metal was cut. And concurrently with the other projects like Gemini and Apollo!
And yeah, I know a lot of it was b/c the military was contributing money and resources.

What I'm saying is... at this point, we (the US) can't get our combined efforts to produce ONE damned workable manned spacecraft into service, to say nothing of a series of capsules and spacecraft.

At worst, it'll all amount to a bunch of artwork. Again.

 

[Cyke101]

The U.S. hasn't cancelled anything yet. If the proposed 2013 budget for NASA passes unaltered then there will be cancellations. There is a good chance Congress will restore the funding for those missions before passing the budget. Obama's been pretty shrewd at "cutting" things only to have Congress restore funding.

Spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) is a joke.

Really?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17029019
You are actually expecting your so-called 'argument' to be convincing?


BTW, obviously, your rhetoric changes nothing to the fact that 'at this point, claiming that USA is commited to robotic exploration - or that it is a reliable partner - is a joke.'
Next time, try to come up with a funier one, sojourner.

Yeesh, dial it down a bit whydontcha.

 

[GSchnitzer]

On this day in 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth..

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/boeing/article/50-years-of-Americans-in-orbit-3340352.php


I was too young to remember, but my father remembers it as a time full of promise and hope for the future..

Any thoughts?

This is just a reminder that although John Glenn ws the first American human to orbit the Earth, an American chimpanzee, Enos, orbited a few months earlier: November 29, 1961. Enos, went up after Alan Shepard's and Gus Grissom's sub-orbital flights, but before John Glenn's orbital flight.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

What I'm saying is... at this point, we (the US) can't get our combined efforts to produce ONE damned workable manned spacecraft into service, to say nothing of a series of capsules and spacecraft.

At worst, it'll all amount to a bunch of artwork. Again.

Don't count out the private space industry just yet. I hear the Dreamchaser's first test article is close to completion, and the Falcon 9/Dragon had its launch rehearsal this week. In terms of capsule design and construction, it seems to me SpaceX is about where NASA was right before Alan Shepherd's first flight, while Sierra Nevada is a bit farther behind but only because they don't have a booster of their own. And then there's Boeing with the CST-100 design, vying for third place in the commercial space race.

Just saying, there's alot going on in real spacecraft design right now, it's just that none of it's happening at NASA. I keep expecting to turn on CNN and see a big green Falcon 9 rocket with a Planet Express logo on the side of it.

 

[sojourner]

They should get FedEx to sponser the first CRS mission. Paint that rocket blue.

 

[The Castellan]

I'm not impressed. For the past 30+ years, all we've done is flying about in low earth orbit, going no where. NASCAR in space.....whoopty laty doty freaking da!

Until we start going to the moon and mars, it's going to mean nothing. Only thing keeping me going is the Curiosity Mission, which is nuclear powered and heading to Gale Crater, the geometric patterns I've seen in one of the images taken makes me think there's something there, looks like some sorta installation or other structure....I just hope NASA does not have another 'accident' with this one.

 

[sojourner]

the geometric patterns I've seen in one of the images taken makes me think there's something there, looks like some sorta installation or other structure....I just hope NASA does not have another 'accident' with this one.

As Sam Beckett would say "Oh boy".

 

[The Castellan]

the geometric patterns I've seen in one of the images taken makes me think there's something there, looks like some sorta installation or other structure....I just hope NASA does not have another 'accident' with this one.

As Sam Beckett would say "Oh boy".

Your makes me wanna .