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[Varrent]

Link to final shuttle launch page.

For those of you who are not U.S. residents, I don't really know if you would've even heard of this at all, but NASA is launching its final Shuttle this weekend. And as it is real life space stuffs, I thought it would be interesting to get your opinions on the end of the Space Shuttle.

Personally, I'm just hoping they unveil a warp drive once this is all over! 

Anyhow in all seriousness I'm sad to see the last Shuttle launch, gonna be watching it online though, so should be fun.

[Milo Caman]

Was covered on the BBC. Sad panda to see it's come to this. When I was teeny I spent hours reading books on the shuttle launches. Feels like the end of an era

Still, Europe's big for commercial launches at the moment, maybe things will kick off here in the future.

[Z.Sinraali]

Not true. It's only the last flight for the unarmed space shuttle. With the upcoming refit program, they will become the Earth's first warships in space, to better defend us against the alien menace.

[Ken]

All good things...  It's the century of commercial spaceflight anyway.

http://www.spacex.com/

[Esna Pitoojee]

Will be sad to see this go, simply because I approve of a national space program competing with commercial ventures.

[Ken]

Well, I'm sure one of the companies will end up being designated the "flag carrier" after a while. 

[Alain Colcer]

About time really... it got old and expensive to fly.....and the fact it existed prevented real commercial applications to be designed.

I hope we get a 5-year spree on booming space industries  :

[orange]

I am struggling to put my frustrations, disappointments, and hopes into text.

I think a poor, but inevitable decision was made in the wake of the Columbia accident to retire the last 3 shuttles following "completion" of the ISS.  I think we handicapped ourselves in the wake of the Challenger accident.  I think we muddled the STS development process and forced ourselves to abandon the largest single structure ever launched into orbit (Skylab).  I think, despite general support for a national space program, it is the number 1 priority of a very small group of people and thus gets less than 1% of the Federal Budget.

I think American commercial space companies are going to rapidly mature and dominate the human spaceflight industry by the end of the decade.  By the end of the decade, there will be at least 1 manned commercial launches (6-7 passengers) per month to 2-3 manned commercial LEO stations and possibly beyond LEO (L1 and Lunar surface).    The launch rate for 2-3 manned commercial LEO stations will only help to bring down overall launch cost, with manned launches heading towards exceeding the current US total number of launches. (SpaceX Dragon, Sierra Nevada DreamChaser, Boeing CST-100, Bigelow Sundancer/BA-330/BA-2100)

I really should quit Eve...

[Senn Typhos]

I sincerely doubt that commercial space travel will come into being at any point in the near future.

It already takes 5 hours for an American flight hub to decide whether or not and individual might be a terrorist, their industries are still failing, and let alone the discomforts of your average atmospheric commercial flight, imagine trying to make a comfortable flight through space. Not to mention the potential environmental impacts that will probably be bitched about for decades.

[Akrasjel Lanate]

So now the Russian Federation will have to supply the ISS... with their classical rockets... 

[Ken]

I sincerely doubt that commercial space travel will come into being at any point in the near future.

It already takes 5 hours for an American flight hub to decide whether or not and individual might be a terrorist, their industries are still failing, and let alone the discomforts of your average atmospheric commercial flight, imagine trying to make a comfortable flight through space. Not to mention the potential environmental impacts that will probably be bitched about for decades.

And yet it already has.  All of those things are problems that developed for the airlines after many decades of commercial air travel.  While their equivalents may eventually crop up and plague the average traveler on a sub-orbital flight, convenience and economy propelled commercial air from a novelty to routine and the same will probably drive commercial space.  Anywhere in the world in 90 minutes?  A lot of people will pay good money for that.  There are also real and measurable business opportunities in getting to and exploiting Lagrange points for zero-g manufacture, lunar H3 resources, rare earth minerals stocked in asteroids, as well as building space elevators, and who knows what else.  Let's not forget that there are still other governments out there in countries whose people/leaders are still enamored with spaceflight as a point of national pride and achievement (China).  Competing with those powers is in the best interests of the "old" spaceflight club, but the poor efficiency of government-funded flight programs (especially in the current economy) will probably encourage greater subsidy of commercial ventures.  So, in the West, a few daring companies will sink a lot of cash getting into the industry (they already have), but once they go up and start making money hand over fist, a new space race will get into gear.

So now the Russian Federation will have to supply the ISS... with their classical rockets... 

Not exclusively.  http://www.spacex.com/launch_manifest.php

[orange]

I sincerely doubt that commercial space travel will come into being at any point in the near future.

It already takes 5 hours for an American flight hub to decide whether or not and individual might be a terrorist, their industries are still failing, and let alone the discomforts of your average atmospheric commercial flight, imagine trying to make a comfortable flight through space. Not to mention the potential environmental impacts that will probably be bitched about for decades.

I am not entirely sure what you consider "commercial space travel" to be.  When I am talking about it, I am talking about vehicles atop traditional rockets (Delta IV, Atlas V, Falcon 9, Soyuz) launching 6-7 people per launch.  The 6-7 people either paid 15-65m to get their seat (depends on the manufacturer) or someone else (a non-US government or company) is paying for them to go to space.

They are not going to sit in their cramped capsule for too long before they arrive at a station of some kind, ISS or Bigelow Aerospace or others I may not be aware of.

So now the Russian Federation will have to supply the ISS... with their classical rockets... 

Except the Russian Federation is not alone in supplying the ISS with classical rockets.  Both ESA (Automated Transfer Vehicle) and the Japanese (can't remember the name off the top of my head) have sent missions to the ISS and two US commercial companies have fixed price contracts to deliver cargo to the ISS (SpaceX & Orbital).  SpaceX's first cargo flight will be before the end of the year.

The US does not have to depend on the Russian Federation, and will not have to for long for manned spaceflight.

[Bataav]

...the Japanese (can't remember the name off the top of my head)

JAXA resupply using their H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV).

Of course while people look to Europe, Japan and Russia to resupply the ISS it'll be interesting to watch the new space race between China and India.

[Milo Caman]

I sincerely doubt that commercial space travel will come into being at any point in the near future.

It already takes 5 hours for an American flight hub to decide whether or not and individual might be a terrorist, their industries are still failing, and let alone the discomforts of your average atmospheric commercial flight, imagine trying to make a comfortable flight through space. Not to mention the potential environmental impacts that will probably be bitched about for decades.

Hence Europe 

[orange]

Addendum to my previous post: Soyuz only has 3 seats & the US will also be buying seats from commercial crew providers.

Hence Europe 

Except no European nation or the whole other than Russia has successfully returned an object from orbit of the size required for human space flight.  A small US company with less than 2000 employees and less than 1 billion dollars (1/18 NASA's budget) has done just that.

I have high hopes that ESA's IEV ( http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1106/10ixv/ ) leads to more advanced and large vehicles, but it is sadly years away.


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