Two Shuttles Together For The Last Time...

[AndyG]

It would be rather strange for the worlds No 1 super power to have scrapped the shuttle system and to not the have a means for manned access to space wouldn't it?

It's already occurred, there will already be a lapse in manned space flight for the US. Shuttle is gone come 2010 and next generation manned program is yet to be functional for several years after without Soyuz + Russia. NASA isn't using it's own manned launch vehicles to get anyone into space for a few years after 2010. They'll have to use Soyuz to get to ISS. NASA won't have any self-launched viable alternative before 2015 at the earliest. SpaceX might have Dragon done by then, but SpaceX isn't NASA.

Just because its not in the public domain, doesn't mean there isn't one. ?There are numerous examples from history I'm sure we could all point to. The black budgets are so colosal, who knows what projects are lurking within.

[BHawthorne]

Just because its not in the public domain, doesn't mean there isn't one. ?There are numerous examples from history I'm sure we could all point to. The black budgets are so colosal, who knows what projects are lurking within.

Playing devil's advocate doesn't mean anything exists. There is no need to black project a scientific based manned space program. This isn't USAF spacecraft we're talking about here, it's NASA. Simply put, the transition in administration and NASA management shows a current lack of concrete vision that they're acting upon. The last NASA head was micro-managing the constellation program before he got axed. He was the bully pulpit for that program and with him gone it's definitely going to see some changes. What those changes are and if they're good or bad who knows? Any way you look at it they've dropped the ball for the next half-decade.

[Garth]

It would be rather strange for the worlds No 1 super power to have scrapped the shuttle system and to not the have a means for manned access to space wouldn't it?

That was essentially the same argument made in the early 1990s when the SR-71 was retired. The US would never give up the kind of capability it brought to the table without there being something to not only replace it, but also seriously improve upon it.

The USAF, while refusing to acknowledge a replacement, didn't exactly do anything to refute the notion that one existed. When Congress found out, a few years later, that there WASN'T a replacement, and that the capability was lost mainly due to budgetary and personal turf wars within the USAF, they restarted the SR-71 program (the restarted program ultimately falling victim to Clinton's abbreviated ability to exercise a line-item veto).

[Garth]

Some interesting shots before the Atlantis launch. Won't be seen again as they will begin dismantling PadB...

http://www.launchphotography.com/STS-12 ... ttles.html

Are they actually dismantling 39B? I thought they were going to just heavily modify it for the new hardware. In fact, if you look at the pictures of the Endeavour stack on 39B and the Atlantis stack on 39A, you'll see that they've already erected the multiple lightning towers around 39B and removed the lightning tower on top of the launch tower for Orion ... while the lightning tower on 39A is still there ...

[APG85]

Some interesting shots before the Atlantis launch. Won't be seen again as they will begin dismantling PadB...

http://www.launchphotography.com/STS-12 ... ttles.html

Are they actually dismantling 39B? I thought they were going to just heavily modify it for the new hardware. In fact, if you look at the pictures of the Endeavour stack on 39B and the Atlantis stack on 39A, you'll see that they've already erected the multiple lightning towers around 39B and removed the lightning tower on top of the launch tower for Orion ... while the lightning tower on 39A is still there ...

More specifically, they are dismantling it for Shuttle use. The current tower will go and it will be set up for Ares operations...

[APG85]

Another great shot...

http://www.pbase.com/rod_ostoski/image/111458125

[Garth]

Another great shot...

http://www.pbase.com/rod_ostoski/image/111458125

With all the great shots being posted, I figured I'd ask about a series of shuttle pictures I saw years ago but have been unable to find since.

They were taken during the post-Challenger hiatus and were of two or three of the shuttles, all heavily stripped down (no OMS pods, no SSMEs, tarps covering the big gaping holes in their noses where the forward RCS apparatuses had been removed) and crammed into a hangar (one of the processing facility at KSC's buildings, I suppose) together.

Anyone else remember seeing these? Know where I could find them (I've spent a fair amount of time trolling through the NASA websites over the years, with no luck).

Thanks!

[APG85]

I've seen the pictures you are talking about. Columbia spent some time in the VAB with overhead tarps. Every once in awhile I stumble across them. When I do, I'll post the link...

[CH2Tdriver]

Now this is interesting. I had not heard much of anything about the X-37.

http://www.space.com/news/090602-x-37b-space-plane.html

Seems if they take this tech demonstrator to the next step one day, it won't be the end of a shuttle like vehicle at all?

quote "Details sketchy

While next year's flight profile remains a bit hazy, reports have the X-37B under auto-pilot control zooming into Vandenberg Air Force Base for a landing, or perhaps at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

As a reusable space plane, the intent of the craft is to serve as a testbed for dozens of technologies in airframe, propulsion and operation, and other items in the hopes of making space transportation and operations significantly more affordable.

According to earlier press releases issued by Boeing, the X-37 orbital craft is capable of circling Earth for up to three weeks.

"Potential new commercial and military reusable space vehicle market applications for these technologies range from on-orbit satellite repair to the next-generation of totally reusable launch vehicles," explained past Boeing-issued material.

[NASA's mission last month to service the Hubble Space Telescope marked the last satellite-servicing mission by the shuttle fleet.]

The intent of the X-37B mission is to try out a wide variety of experiments and technologies, including a highly durable, high-temperature thermal protection system; storable, non-toxic liquid propellants; and important new aerodynamic features - all of which are applicable to future reusable space vehicles.

The vehicle is about 27.5 feet long with a roughly 15-foot wingspan and tips the scales at about 5 tons at liftoff."

Pete