Author Topic: Wheels Stop  (Read 897 times)

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Offline rickl

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Wheels Stop
« on: July 26, 2011, 10:12:41 PM »
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The first era of NASA’s human spaceflight efforts came to end at precisely 5:57:54 am Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, July 21, 2011. Exactly 54 seconds after the wheels of its main landing gear made contact with the runway at the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, the shuttle Atlantis came to a halt, an event known in shuttle lingo as “wheels stop”. Never again would a shuttle orbiter move under its own propulsion: from here on out the shuttles would be towed, trucked, and even flown atop their 747 carrier aircraft until they reach their final destinations, museums in Los Angeles, near Washington, and KSC itself.

For NASA, the question after Apollo became, “Now what?” There were bold plans for further exploration—bases on the Moon, missions to Mars—but the national appetite for them was lacking without the impetus of a race for global supremacy.
Claiming that the landing of Atlantis last week represented the end of a first age for the agency’s human spaceflight program may seem a little odd: surely, many would argue, it was at least a second age, after Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo? While the Space Shuttle represented a sharp technological discontinuity from those earlier programs—a shift from expendable rockets and capsules to an all-purpose reusable “space truck”—it benefitted from the broader programmatic and political momentum created by those earlier programs. Understanding this allows for a better appreciation of the agency’s current situation.

Human spaceflight activities started in the US at a torrid pace a half century ago, with America locked in a frantic space race with the Soviet Union to demonstrate superiority in space and, by extension, superiority on Earth. While it’s something of a myth that NASA had access to unlimited resources during this time—there were congressional concerns about NASA spending even in the early 1960s—the nation’s purse was open to a far greater degree than it has since then for human spaceflight, enabling a rapid series of advancements capped by Apollo 11’s successful landing on the Moon 42 years ago this month. For the space race, it was mission accomplished.

For NASA, the question became, “Now what?” There were bold plans for further exploration—bases on the Moon, missions to Mars—but the national appetite for them was lacking without the impetus of a race for global supremacy, and when NASA had to compete with other national priorities for resources. However, NASA’s human spaceflight efforts had, in effect, built up momentum: while the space infrastructure of Saturn 5 rockets and Apollo capsules were been tossed aside, there was considerable terrestrial infrastructure, in the form of facilities, workforce, and more—a whole industry had sprung up within a decade. Thus, there were very tangible reasons for continuing human spaceflight, to keep that industry in place in at least some form (if not in its glory during the peak of Apollo). There were also intangible reasons, as well: while the US had won the space race, the Cold War raged on; how would it look to the rest of the world if the US gave up even while the Soviet Union soldiered on in low Earth orbit?

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The end of the Space Shuttle program comes at a time when the nation is feeling a sense of unease and self-doubt (or, dare we say it, malaise) not experienced since the 1970s, thanks to the sluggish economy, budget deficits and the debt ceiling debate, the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and more. The end of the shuttle and the resulting gap in human spaceflight—a feature that dates back to the original Vision for Space Exploration, something forgotten in much of the recent discussion—has added to that. But, beyond a series of aggrieved editorials and blog posts, there hasn’t been much public reaction (or outrage) to the shuttle’s end. Listening to a top-of-the-hour news recap on a Washington, DC radio station Thursday evening, a little more than 12 hours after Atlantis landed, I was surprised to find that the shuttle didn’t make the list of top stories. Instead, the news was dominated by the debt ceiling debate, the heat wave gripping much of the nation, and the NFL lockout. The shuttle’s end had become yesterday’s news before it had even become yesterday.

There is still plenty of hope for the future, in the official pronouncements of agency officials and other space advocates, who see a bright future ahead for NASA’s human spaceflight program. “You know, the Space Shuttle has changed the way we view the world and it’s changed the way we view our universe,” STS-135 commander Chris Ferguson said from the cockpit of Atlantis shortly after wheels stop. “There are a lot of emotions today, but one thing’s indisputable: America’s not going to stop exploring.” Perhaps. There is no guarantee, though, that such exploration will be in the near future, or involve humans. One thing is certain, though: whatever direction, if any, NASA’s human spaceflight programs take in the future, they will have to come up with new rationales to support them. They will no longer be able to tap the momentum of the agency’s past accomplishments, as they have in the past. That momentum was spent once and for all when Atlantis rolled to a stop on the runway last Thursday.

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Online benb61

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Re: Wheels Stop
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2011, 01:49:24 PM »
NASA History in a nut shell,

No access to space -
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) operations -
High earth orbit operations -
Lunar operations -
High Earth Orbit operations -
Low Erath Orbit (LEO) operations
No access to space

It reads the same forwards as backwards.
Eschew Obfuscation