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Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp (Post 7505298)

Imagine where we would be if the US diverted funds from their military program to health care, social programs and education

fixed that for you

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Originally Posted by blkgsr (Post 7509615)

fixed that for you

No US military? We'd probably all be speaking German, Japanese or Russian.

http://www.bulbish.com/PICS1/11_12re...zi_Germany.jpg

The Challenger Disaster was one of those events that will always stand out for me. The loss of schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe from the Teacher in Space Project made it even more notable. Put away somewhere are drawings I made that day of the disaster I would be interested to see again.

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At least some of the astronauts were likely alive and briefly conscious after the breakup, as three of the four Personal Egress Air Packs (PEAPs) on the flight deck were found to have been activated. Investigators found their remaining unused air supply roughly consistent with the expected consumption during the 2 minute 45 second post-breakup trajectory.

A good documentary on the disaster

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/1an...ray_210254.jpg

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Two photos, thirty years apart, move the Web

Thirty years ago, the first space shuttle launched into the stratosphere. Chris Bray and his father Kenneth watched -- and took a picture. Then last Friday, the shuttle Atlantis took its final trip. Again, the Bray men were there. And again, the two snapped a photo to capture the moment.

The side-by-side photos, which are up on Chris Bray's Flickr photostream, immediately went viral on the Web.

The first shot shows 13-year-old Chris with then 39-year-old dad looking through binoculars at the space shuttle Columbia's first launch on April 12, 1981, from the Kennedy Space Center.

The second snap comes three decades later and recreates the same moment at the last shuttle voyage. The young son is now an adult. His father is now gray-haired.

Chris Bray wrote on his Flickr page of the side-by-side images: "The picture we waited 30 years to complete."

The younger Bray told the Washington Post, "We've always loved that first photo. Taking a similar one for the last launch seemed like the perfect opportunity to celebrate the shuttle program and our relationship by putting the time passed in perspective, celebrating the interests we share, and illustrating the father/son bond we've maintained over the years."

The Brays' photo touched a chord of nostalgia in many rocket enthusiasts, and the pic has been viewed on Flickr an astronomical 510,000 times.

Comments on the pictures commend the melding of the personal with the historical. Says one: "Epic. To be able to share in something so wonderful with your dad, both beginning and end. I am jealous -- both that you watched not only the first but also the last mission -- but also that you did it with your father."

Another fan of the photo who used to work on the space program wrote in, "Everyone I used to work [with in the shuttle program] thinks it's so cool, [they] get chills."

Chris Bray responded in an email that he was overwhelmed by the response: "I was surprised. The picture had a lot of significance for me and my father, but we didn't expect that the photo would touch so many other people." He added, " The moment has stayed with me since that day, and is one of my fondest memories and childhood experiences."
Two photos, thirty years apart, move the Web | Daily Brew - Yahoo! News

so what happens to those rocket boosters after it gets detached? floats around in space?

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Originally Posted by FerrariEnzo (Post 7512216)

so what happens to those rocket boosters after it gets detached? floats around in space?

The solid fuel rocket boosters parachute back to earth and are retrieved. The fuel tank floats around in space.

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Originally Posted by gars (Post 7512297)

The solid fuel rocket boosters parachute back to earth and are retrieved. The fuel tank floats around in space.

The external fuel tank falls back to earth, but breaks up before impact in the ocean. It doesn't float around in space!

noob question: Once the space program ends, what will happen to the International Space Station? I have NOT been following NASA, so i'm not sure what the whole story is. Coles notes would help :)

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Originally Posted by FerrariEnzo (Post 7512216)

so what happens to those rocket boosters after it gets detached? floats around in space?

The external tank re-enters the atmosphere, breaks up in the process, hits the ocean away from land and shipping lanes, and is not recovered/reused.

The solid rocket boosters re-enter the atmosphere, parachute to earth, land in the ocean, and are recovered, de-watered, and floated back to the Kennedy Space Center.

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Originally Posted by tiger_handheld (Post 7512330)

noob question: Once the space program ends, what will happen to the International Space Station? I have NOT been following NASA, so i'm not sure what the whole story is. Coles notes would help :)

It's only the NASA shuttle program that is ending, the ISS will be serviced and resupplied by Russian rockets/shuttles. The US will also pay the Russians to transport their astronauts on their shuttles.

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Originally Posted by 7seven (Post 7512351)

Yup they are outsourcing their space program now :okay:

pretty soon China's astronauts is going up there...

Here's a video of the retrieval process, as filmed from Discovery's final mission.