Why do Texans want the space shuttle?

I think the Air Force museum in Ohio should get it. Not because I live in Ohio but because this is the birth place of flight and this would be a great addition to the museum.

 

This reminds me of the countless remarks that assume the Prius appeals only to green socialists and has no mainstream appeal (1.5-2.0 million sold )

The shuttle at times was a national icon on the level of the Statue of Liberty and would still be if the Challenger and Columbia were not lost.

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I'm a lot more concerned that 50 years after Yuri Gagarin became the 1st publically acknowledged human in space (Vladimir Ilyushin went the week before, crashed in China with severe injuries because he did not bailout before touchdown The Space Review: Review: Fallen Idol: The Yuri Gagarin Conspiracy ), the US is months away from not having a manned launch vehicle...bad on the US space program.

 

More on Vladimir Ilyushin.

I think it's a credible story he went the week before Gagarin and the Soviets launched again hoping they would get it right and make the world forget their best test pilot nearly died on decent, spent a year in China when relations with the Soviets were tense.

Cosmosnauts had been airbrushed out of pictures and identities made public only if the flight was a success...there may have been failures.

Khrushchev was using the his space card to the max, as it put US tech in doubt.

There is no doubt the Soviets were first in space, but was Gagarin really the first? He was the first to safely return.

 

North Carolinia was the first in actual flight only because it was the best place for the Wright brothers to test their aircraft.

It may be true that for foot traffic the Air Force museum may not be best but I still think its best since its one of the best if not the best aircraft museum in the USA. Every time I have went there it has been pretty busy. People from all across the US and the world go there.

 

I think it's the end of an era. Why are you guys throwing away all the experience and expertise? What's next for the American space department?

Nasa and American space technology was also the pride of the Western world too, yet you've let it slip and now what's left? Sure it costs your tax payers lots of dollars but it's cheaper than a war and China and India are working away to take the top spot.

And relying on the Russians to send supplies to the Space Station? Madness. I wouldn't trust them as far as I could see them. Remember the trust that Europe had in the free market Russian gas pipeline, yet after a few years Russia turned it off causing blackouts across Europe when Ukraine refused to pay as didn't like their bills being doubled overnight.

Tread carefully friends!

 

I feel for Houstonians. I believe they do deserve one for their part in the space program.

There are more space shuttles. They're just not in NASA's fleet, and they're not up for sale yet. The US Air Force, as I recall, has a couple. So if Texans can wait about 10 more years, and if those get decommissioned and scrubbed of their top secret contents, it might be possible.

 

The Air Force versions of the space shuttle hardly resemble the ones that NASA operated. These are unmanned vehciles, operated remotely and used for covert military operations such as spy satellite maintenance. Hardly suitable for what we've learned to like about the mostly peaceful role of the NASA birds.

By the way, there are more shuttles, but they are Russian Burans. Budget constraints prevented them from flying, but they do bear an uncanny resemblence to our shuttles.

 

You answered your own question: Money!

Presently, the U.S. is in the midst of making some of the largest spending cuts and almost all government-funded programs are feeling the effects. On one hand, it's nice to wax about national pride, but we have to face a financial crisis now and the space program is one of them.

 

Space program or medical care for all and feed the starving. But China and/or India don't give a damn about the latter and will overtake you (and the West), and you'll never manage to feed all the starving.

Tricky one.

 

Mostly it's a problem with long term planning. We had the time and the money to produce a replacement for the space shuttle, but for years the U.S. has been unable to do any meaningful long term planning. All we do is react to the latest crisis and blame the other political party for causing all of our problems.

Tom

 

No, I'm not speaking of the newer unmanned AF X-37b version. The older AF shuttles were co-developed with the regular NASA fleet, but in secret.

 

I thought the Russian Burans were fully remote-control capable, and all of them now are scrapped or sit in irreversible states of disrepair? It's what I get from reading wikipedia....

 

Well I for one, if I am able plan to watch the landing atop the 747 Transporter. I want to also watch the move from LAX to The Museum of Science and History.
That will not beat all the Shuttle landings I helped cover from the side of the landing runway at Edwards AFB. ABCNEWS has certainly sent me to some interesting historical events. They even paid me to be there.
Hell, I would have done it for free, Pssst, Don't tell 'em!!!

 

The older AF shuttles *are* the NASA shuttles -- they are one and the same. The AF never had their own manned shuttles, only their own west cost launch facility. It was intended for polar orbits, but never used. The Challenger accident put an end to it. After Challenger exploded, the government changed tacks and decided to once again use expendable boosters for polar orbits.

Tom

 

Ah HA! There we go. Thanks for the other part of that story. A long long time ago, there was a NOVA show (or something like that on PBS) on the space race and part of that story was the two AF shuttles and how they might be used. I had thought they had just hung on to them over at Vandenberg and maybe mothballed them.

 

Why do Texans celebrate George W. Bush and the Confederacy? Maybe they just like ill-conceived expensive spectacular failures.