A Spaceship Has Landed On Earth

Discovery OV-103, a Proud Bird that flies the American Flag and the NASA Meatball, a Spaceship has made her final landing on Earth and She came from American ingenuity, engineering & technical ability and hard working technicians.
We were and always will be the Space Shuttle Team doing what Others Dream!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trueisnotfalse/7...

Actually I kind of hate to see the space program go downhill like it is. Now we have to rely on the Russians and Chinese for the scientific break throughs. We are supposedly the richest nation on earth and we can't lead. We have to follow.

Watched the fly around of the Shuttle over D.C.
Going to the Smithsonian.

A Worthy farewell and the end of dreams for a while or maybe forever.

Homer wrote:

Actually I kind of hate to see the space program go downhill like it is. Now we have to rely on the Russians and Chinese for the scientific break throughs. We are supposedly the richest nation on earth and we can't lead. We have to follow.

No; it's just being privatized like it should have been 20 years ago. There are numerous space projects going on, some that are ready to go active. Private enterprise is how the space endeavor should have been done after the initial 30 year research phase that no private company could have afforded.

Current proposed and budgeted Space Program is two pronged;
Private industry will develop and fly LEO flights both manned and unmanned.
NASA will continue to be the agency responsible for Deep Space exploration with the Space Launch System (SLS)heavy launch vehicle and the Orion capsule.
The SLS has a long time line for full implementation. I won't be a part of the Launch Team.
But I truly believe that this Country will continue to accomplish what others dream!

Floridian wrote:

<quoted text>No; it's just being privatized like it should have been 20 years ago. There are numerous space projects going on, some that are ready to go active. Private enterprise is how the space endeavor should have been done after the initial 30 year research phase that no private company could have afforded.

Yup. The guy that runs Virgin, Richard Branson, is in love with space missions and has the deep pockets and can go faster and further than any government, red taped program would allow.

Whether he is successful or not remains to be seen but I'd bet money on him.

I thought you might have seen a UFO.

Timmy_ wrote:

I thought you might have seen a UFO.

Years ago I was on console when on air to ground encrypt we heard "Houston, we have company".