50 years of Americans in orbit

[sojourner]

Let's just keep the conspiracy theories to the Miscellaneous forum and save this one for science.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Let's just keep the conspiracy theories to the Miscellaneous forum and save this one for science.

Sure, be a stooge for the lizard people.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

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.

 

[SchwEnt]

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.

I know and follow progress on all the private spacers. I'd love to see 'em all get flying. I'm hoping with everything I got.

Then SpaceShipOne flew and really really did it, plans for tourist suborbital flights were announced with Virgin Galactic and all that. I imagined it would be quite soon.

But it's EIGHT years later and still not close to an inaugural passenger flight.

Eight years is gonna become a decade and then a dozen years and...

As an Apollo orphan, I was born into the world as mankind walked on the Moon. I have been waiting my entire life for the next step, and instead we are further behind then when I was born.

At this point, I don't believe I'll live to see the next step... or even a repeat of past steps. Damn.

 

[MANT!]

Oct 4, 2004 was when Spaceship 1 did it..there have been a few setbacks..including a 2007 explosion at Scaled Composites that killed 3 workers and injured 3 more..this put the program back by at least 2 years..

Spaceflight isn't routine..even suborbital spaceflight... Alan Shepard's Mercury flight was rather dicy..

Please note, after initial test flights, the FAA/AST has to get involved for final certification..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAA/AST


So 2013..or a little later...just not the decades you envision... and after that Virgin Galactic has planned a sub-orbital point to point service...

kind of like the following..

it will happen just not as fast as I wanted..but better late than never..

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I know and follow progress on all the private spacers. I'd love to see 'em all get flying. I'm hoping with everything I got.

Then SpaceShipOne flew and really really did it...

SpaceShipOne was a private venture, but not exactly a "commercial" one. That first flight was mainly just to prove that they could do it, winning the Ansari X-prize; parlaying that into a coherent business plan was just icing on the cake.

Commercial space providers like SpaceX and Sierra Nevada (and to a lesser extent Blue Origin) started with the business plan and then built spaceships to match; the Falcon 9/Dragon launch to the ISS is coming up soon, which would officially put SpaceX in a higher position than NASA to commission a manned spaceflight.

As an Apollo orphan, I was born into the world as mankind walked on the Moon. I have been waiting my entire life for the next step, and instead we are further behind then when I was born.

At this point, I don't believe I'll live to see the next step... or even a repeat of past steps. Damn.

You only have to wait another month or two before commercial flights to the ISS begin. From there, you'll only have to wait another five or six years before they start launching crews (possibly less, depending on what happens with Bigelow Aerospace).

Don't get caught up assuming the next step is colonizing the moon or Mars. The next step in spaceflight is fixing it so you don't have to be an Air Force super-ace in peak physical and mental condition just to make the short list for an astronaut candidate.

 

[sojourner]

Well heck, if Howard Wolowitz can go, anyone can.

 

[zephramc]

I know and follow progress on all the private spacers. I'd love to see 'em all get flying. I'm hoping with everything I got.

Then SpaceShipOne flew and really really did it...

SpaceShipOne was a private venture, but not exactly a "commercial" one. That first flight was mainly just to prove that they could do it, winning the Ansari X-prize; parlaying that into a coherent business plan was just icing on the cake.

Commercial space providers like SpaceX and Sierra Nevada (and to a lesser extent Blue Origin) started with the business plan and then built spaceships to match; the Falcon 9/Dragon launch to the ISS is coming up soon, which would officially put SpaceX in a higher position than NASA to commission a manned spaceflight.

As an Apollo orphan, I was born into the world as mankind walked on the Moon. I have been waiting my entire life for the next step, and instead we are further behind then when I was born.

At this point, I don't believe I'll live to see the next step... or even a repeat of past steps. Damn.

You only have to wait another month or two before commercial flights to the ISS begin. From there, you'll only have to wait another five or six years before they start launching crews (possibly less, depending on what happens with Bigelow Aerospace).

Don't get caught up assuming the next step is colonizing the moon or Mars. The next step in spaceflight is fixing it so you don't have to be an Air Force super-ace in peak physical and mental condition just to make the short list for an astronaut candidate.

Pardon my French, but FUCKING SWEET...

 

[Knight Templar]

You would think NASA could get more done with 16-17 billion dollars a year.

Assume that only half of that is for manned missions, doesn't one think we could manage at least four manned missions a year with 8 billion dollars?

 

[sojourner]

^That's about what they managed with the shuttle.

 

[Knight Templar]

^That's about what they managed with the shuttle.

And they're not managing that now. Personally, I think that for 8 billion a year they should be able to manage four orbital flights a year and one manned mission to the moon a year.

 

[sojourner]

^Well that's because they're in the middle of building a new system. But yeah, if you want more "bang for your buck", NASA should do competitive contracts like they're doing COTS and CCDEV.