Shuttle launch!

[Woketman]

I just had an idea (that is getting quite rare). If any of you FJRs are passing through New Orleans on the way to one of these last launches, I can perhaps arrange and take you guys on a tour of the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) where Lockheed Martin and NASA build the External Tank. I am not sure how big a group I can take in, probably only 4 or 5. And I would need to know info first to get cleared through security, and you gotta be US citizens. We can look into doing this if you want. Now, the down-side: there really is not much point to a tour any longer as we are almost shut down and layoffs are proceeding monthly. All you'd really see is all of the massive tooling for the hydrogen and oxygen tanks, all covered in blue plastic. If there are any tanks left at MAF (depending when this happened) they would likely be out in building 420 (can't take visitors out there). But we could get lucky and see the final tank heading to the barge.

Something to consider for those coming by here.....

 

[rickcorwn]

Booked our plane tickets today 3 of us are headed down for sure 2 more are maybes. We get in Thursday 5/13 and fly home Monday morning, oh yeah :yahoo:

 

[Woketman]

Booked our plane tickets today 3 of us are headed down for sure 2 more are maybes. We get in Thursday 5/13 and fly home Monday morning, oh yeah :yahoo:

Fantastic!!! Like someone already said, try to be certain that you are as flexible as possible in case weather/tech issue launch delays occur. Have fun!!!

 

[FJR Flyer]

Was watching the online press conference from the station - didn't realize Dex was the Mission Commander. Worked with him back when he was a Navy Test Pilot at Pax River. Nice guy. About half dozen or so Tomcat guys from those days are in the program.

Did get to see STS-102 do a pre-dawn launch. Really amazing. It will be sad to go back to the cans on a stick.

 

[Woketman]

Was watching the online press conference from the station - didn't realize Dex was the Mission Commander. Worked with him back when he was a Navy Test Pilot at Pax River. Nice guy. About half dozen or so Tomcat guys from those days are in the program.
Did get to see STS-102 do a pre-dawn launch. Really amazing. It will be sad to go back to the cans on a stick.

Far, far sadder is the fact that if this president gets his way, we are not going back to "cans on a stick". We are going to nothing. Zip. No future. 4.5 decades of USA leadership in human spaceflight flushed down the crapper......

 

[Checkswrecks]

Far, far sadder is the fact that ...we are not going back to "cans on a stick". We are going to nothing. Zip. No future. 4.5 decades of USA leadership in human spaceflight flushed down the crapper......

The political stuff violates forum rules, so won't touch that part. I also tend to avoid the non-FJR posts, but timely to the part about changing course on NASA's future...

I work occasionally with NASA folks and had a talk last Friday with one of the top people in NASA planning. He was telling that even before this administration and the Augustine Commission, management and the administration knew that the Constellation program was unworkable in the funding it'd been given and projected. He was absolutely right. I distinctly remember a similar lunch at an Aging Aircraft Conference and sitting with a NASA bunch of folks years ago when there was an announcement that the funding of long-lead parts for new external tanks had been cut. The room was stunned. We all knew then that Connie couldn't move fast enough and there'd be a period of years without manned flight. It's really hard to believe that the sad day is here.

Basically, the funding idea behind Constellation was to see how far they could get before the money ran out and expect the new administration would pick things up, which meant that Constellation would need a big increase in NASA funding. Handing a hot potato to a successor of any party is an OLD game in DC and thanks to beaurocratic inertia and spreading jobs around voting districts, the tactic usually works. This isn't a red vs blue issue, because both parties do it constantly. Just like with funding manned space, sooner or later the game can't go any farther without a big change. For examples, look at any number of military programs. Ever heard of the Crusader tank or the Boeing/Sikorsky Commanche helicopter?

What killed the Connie program was the Augustine Panel's recognition of three things. One was that simply lifting people was becoming all-consuming on the NASA budget and was far less efficient than robots. Second was that the deeper space missions and research that NASA is known for were near death, largely due to all the money going to the 40 year old technology in the shuttles. I've seen some NASA facilities that look like run-down mill-towns, so have to agree. Third was that current technology can't move enough weight onto the surface of Mars or even worse, back off. The thought was that the technology hopefully could be developed before it was needed!!! Without that part, why bother with Constellation?

There are some promising technologies that probably will work, but they need to be figured out first. That's what Augustine recommended and Obama's now committed us to, like it or not. In short, Augustine said that NASA got screwed financially for so long that it broke to the point it needed to be re-defined. But things aren't as bleak as you wrote, either.

The two upsides are that (1) funding's going UP for NASA finally, and (2) that when people do go back to space the technology will have made a serious improvement. We're entering a boom for robotics and those who build smaller rockets, building toward manned flight returning. We need to figure out better faster/heavier ways to fly first. Something you missed and that I hope as a Nation, is that we come back to supporting NASA when people see US astronauts on Russian rockets, or whatever China's "next big thing" will be.

This is going to totally suck for you folks in Florida. While I'm with the group that thinks that we're killing shuttle years too early or that we should already have the shuttle's successor, what got us here has taken decades of starvation, through multiple administrations. This won't be the first time that the end of a program hurt an area, but that thought won't help a lot of people who will be forced to uproot their lives. As an engineer, I got laid off at the end of a Lockheed program and then again at my next job at Hughes. Plenty of Seattle people remember the billboards asking for the last person out to turn off the lights. They made it through.

Besides, there's only one Cape to come back to. All those little robot rockets will need to launch, too.

 

[Woketman]

I agree with some of what you said. But I did not say I faulted the White House for killing Constellation. Just for killing ALL of Constellation (of course, now he's saying we will use Orion for ISS rescue, big deal). What I AM saying is that he is killing 4.5 decades of USA manned spaceflight leadership. That is undeniable.

And for the new tech stuff: there ain't a whole lot you can do to improve chemical propulsion (efficiency-wise), so that's baloney. Vasimir is a worth while direction to head in, but that is a long way off to get to a man-rated system. Again, US leadership in the crapper for the foreseeable future......

It did not have to be this way. He could have put Orion on an EELV and pursued the new tech too. And called for near-term asteroid missions. This comercial crap is just that, crap. It will work for a few missions amd then, when we killl a crew, we shal recall why it was that it cost so much to fly humans.

 

[fljab]

I'm sitting here fooling around on the forum and my house just rocked with the double boom! The shuttle is back in town, just rolled to a stop as I write this..

 

[rickcorwn]

Yeah well I was out early this morning waiting for the shuttle to make a rare pass over Minnesota but the first attempt this morning was scrubbed :angry2: But it gave a chance to work on my rocket geek look, camera in hand binoculars around neck looking to the sky k:

 

[Woketman]

May 14th is the next launch. Anyone planning on going?

 

[Patriot]

May 14th is the next launch. Anyone planning on going?

ah, Mark, is that an invite...bike ride to Cocoa Beach or something ???

 

[Woketman]

Not for me!! I will be at MAF in the Mission Support Room for all three remaining launches (and hopefully a few more, if the Powers wise up)!!!

 

[rickcorwn]

May 14th is the next launch. Anyone planning on going?

I said before that the plane ticket has been purchased now the hotel and rental car are arranged now all that's needed it tickets to the Causeway when they go on sale. There's 5 maybe 6 of us coming a couple are headed back Sunday my return flight is for 6:00PM Monday. If it goes longer we can blow off our return flight and rent a car back to MN. The rental companies have specials on one ways out of Florida just $10 or $12 a day so we could get back for $20 plus gas. The countdown is ON :yahoo:

 

[Woketman]

MOST excellent!!!

 

[fljab]

May 14th is the next launch. Anyone planning on going?

I said before that the plane ticket has been purchased now the hotel and rental car are arranged now all that's needed it tickets to the Causeway when they go on sale. There's 5 maybe 6 of us coming a couple are headed back Sunday my return flight is for 6:00PM Monday. If it goes longer we can blow off our return flight and rent a car back to MN. The rental companies have specials on one ways out of Florida just $10 or $12 a day so we could get back for $20 plus gas. The countdown is ON :yahoo:

If you get here, give me a call; I work at KSC but am currently on short term disability after a shoulder surgery yesterday. I don't expect to be back to work by then. I also wanted to go to Wheaton's run in NC, but that also is dependent on both being back to work/shoulder healed up enough to ride.

Yes, be prepared for delays! They have been trying to pump out these last ones on time, but things happen that causes delays.

Would be great to meet some folks from the forum!

 

[Allnight]

I'm currently planning on attending the end-of-July launch. Already have the vacation time scheduled, but no plane tickets yet. We might drive to it, not sure yet.

 

[Patriot]

Not for me!! I will be at MAF in the Mission Support Room for all three remaining launches (and hopefully a few more, if the Powers wise up)!!!

so can you bring a friend... :clapping:

 

[Woketman]

Not for me!! I will be at MAF in the Mission Support Room for all three remaining launches (and hopefully a few more, if the Powers wise up)!!!

so can you bring a friend... :clapping:

Nope, sorry Mike. They get REAL picky about who is allowed in the MSR at launch time. Most employees cannot even come in. Only those that have a direct need to be there.

Besides, I don't want you to see me cry at the last launch.......

 

[Patriot]

Not for me!! I will be at MAF in the Mission Support Room for all three remaining launches (and hopefully a few more, if the Powers wise up)!!!

so can you bring a friend... :clapping:

Nope, sorry Mike. They get REAL picky about who is allowed in the MSR at launch time. Most employees cannot even come in. Only those that have a direct need to be there.

Besides, I don't want you to see me cry at the last launch.......

I've got a Neil Armstrong mask...

it shows him crying too

 

[rickcorwn]

Well we crashed the visitor center's web site this morning with all the people trying to get tickets mg: I tried for about an hour before I found out the whole mess was down. The worst part of all this is I joined Facebook so I could get updates, oh the horror :gah: