Anyone else watch the live presentation this morning? The description of "flying an iphone" was interesting.

I couldn't listen to the whole 45 minutes. So we're back to using rockets now instead of using shuttles?

Great news but it’s a shame it’s taken this long to get back to flying on our own.

Thankfully they ditched the Shuttle model and went back to sending capsules - especially when the Commerical Crew program is about transporting people, not cargo.

The race is on to see who gets airborne first - looks like SpaceX is on tap to get the first crack at it, but so many things can go wrong / delay progress - I mean they were supposed to by flying several years ago.

I didn't watch more than a few minutes. Is it just me or did NASA just totally dis Blue Origin? All I saw was Boeing and SpaceX.

Can we just finally go back to science and shit? I miss the science

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
I didn't watch more than a few minutes. Is it just me or did NASA just totally dis Blue Origin? All I saw was Boeing and SpaceX.

ETA, misread Blue O as Sierra Nevada.

Blue O wasn't even a player for Commerical Crew or Cargo.

They are just doing suborbital dummy flights right now.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
I couldn't listen to the whole 45 minutes. So we're back to using rockets now instead of using shuttles?

The shuttle WAS a rocket .

The shuttle also was a huge waste of money. It was too big, too expensive, and didn't deliver on what its advocates claimed (though, it's not really the vehicle's fault that they claimed it could do the impossible; 50 flights per year for the fleet, something like 1000 flights before a fatal malfunction). The shuttle forced everybody into using ONE vehicle for ALL space missions. After Challenger, we wised up and went back to expendable rockets for placing satellites into orbit. However, by that time, the damage to our long-term space program was already done.

Capsules aren't as 'sexy' as a winged vehicle, but they are a LOT more economical, a lot more practical, and not NEARLY as expensive. Until such time as we can fly a spacecraft from a runway right into orbit without dumping stages, capsules seem the best bet.

I thought NASA's mission was improving Muslim relations in the world?

The problem they could never really solve with the Shuttle was ice debris falling off the EFT and hitting the heat shield.

They got lucky for a lot of years until Columbia when the damage to the heat shield was catastrophic.

After that it was just a matter of finishing the ISS build missions before cancellation of the program.

Looking back, even Deke Slayton wasn't happy with the Space Shuttle design of launching people and cargo on the same platform, due to the differing requirements for each.

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rey HRH:

Capsules aren't as 'sexy' as a winged vehicle, but they are a LOT more economical, a lot more practical, and not NEARLY as expensive. Until such time as we can fly a spacecraft from a runway right into orbit without dumping stages, capsules seem the best bet.

All currently correct. However you have neglected to consider that if you don't spend money developing a Winged Space Plane you won't EVER have a vehicle capable of going from runway to orbit.

While the Shuttle program had it's flaws it was a actually a good start on building up the learning curve to develop an efficient Runway to Orbit program. Unfortunately instead of building on what was learned with the Shuttle and it's faults NASA has chosen to "throw the baby out with the bath water" and go back to what they consider the "Safe" option.

Well, landing is the easy part. The shuttle was essentially a ginormous glider with a crappy glide ratio.

The shuttle could never have been developed for runway *takeoffs*. That would have been the X-43 or NASA 'Orient Express' scramjets (both of which were cancelled). I may be mistaken, but as far as I know, the shuttle was never intended for anything past its intended use as a space truck. It was an evolutionary dead end.

So we're finally commercializing spaceflight?
Would have never happened under Oblammo.

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
Well, landing is the easy part. The shuttle was essentially a ginormous glider with a crappy glide ratio.

Ah I see you've flown my Beech.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Blue O wasn't even a player for Commerical Crew or Cargo.

They are just doing suborbital dummy flights right now.

Which is more than SpaceX is doing. I haven't seen anything on the Dragon 2 crew capsule since the test of the propulsive hover nearly two years ago.