http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/cargo/spacex_update_staticfiring.html

Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif., on Friday targeted May 19 for the launch of its upcoming demonstration mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff time is at 4:55 a.m. EDT, with a launch window that is instantaneous.
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The SpaceX mission will be a landmark for the privately run company that used the same rocket/spacecraft combination in December 2010, to become the first private organization to launch and recover a spacecraft from Earth orbit.

Big step!

Hanging for the Curiosity mission to land on Mars in August.

I think that it's happened? I have an unwelcome and hopefully unjustified expectation of explosions and disappointment. :/

Oh wow. I didn't realise they were this close. Such an awesome achievement. Elon Musk is a f***ing hero!

edit: so launch scheduled for 6:55pm AEST, yeh? Hopefully I can get on the stream then.

Oops, I was way off - the launch is now: http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

Launch aborted.

Can someone explain to me why the space shuttle program has been discontinued?

I haven't done any research but is there something better (and probably secret) to replace the program or are they just giving up on space?

JakeG America poor.... that's the short version.

They were working on a new model and that old shuttles were meant to last until then... but then the budget cuts began and things got slow... So they decided they would retire the old ones early and just wait for the new ones. However, more budget cuts! So now there is doubt they will even get their new rockets finished.

At the moment they either send things up via the Russians (hehe, they must hate that) or are going to rely on the private sector (hence why spacex is so important).

There are a few other countries that can launch various rockets into space and the private sector generally use them to get their s*** into orbit.

I kept it simple, if you'd like I could link all the sources for the information and make a short timeline of events for the last few years. But if that was enough info then so be it =)

Can someone explain to me why the space shuttle program has been discontinued?

Because the entire public space program that we see is just a charade by the government who have advanced alien technology kept in secret bases on the dark side of the moon.

JakeG America poor.... that's the short version.

http://i.imgur.com/t0WyY.png

It's more the American bloodlust for killing and torturing brown people that keeps money from NASA then.

Ta for answing that question guys.. however, that is pretty depressing.

Lately I have been thinking if war broke out and I was asked to fight, i'd refuse.

I hope it is in my lifetime that the true nature of things (democracy) gets exposed.

why look for habitual land in out of space when there if perfectly good habitual land on earth. so lets just take that land.

Exploration, adventure and seeking answers is pretty ingrained in our nature Timmeh.

Also habitable.

no, he's talking about designated smoking areas.

why look for habitual land in out of space when there if perfectly good habitual land on earth. so lets just take that land.

unfortunately a lot of that land already has people living on it and for some reason they don't like other people just turning up to take it

some cool pics here of the iss crew going up in the russian rocket last week.

There's also a lot of sweet stuff in space. A lot. This whole planet is just one tiny infinitesimal speck of the materials of this planetary system. Then there's like a jillion others.

http://www.rayfowler.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/size_of_earth_3.jpg

http://htwins.net/scale2/

That has been posted recently but it is probably The Best Thing On The Internet.

^^^ wow. Total Perspective Vortex. Those things are awesome.

JakeG America poor.... that's the short version.

http://i.imgur.com/t0WyY.png

A penny for Nasa.

trog: remember to click things to find out info about them.

massively disappointed that when you click on Earth, it doesn't say "Mostly Harmless"

why look for habitual land in out of space when there if perfectly good habitual land on earth. so lets just take that land.

We have a range of materials on earth which are known. We use many of them. Even the unlimited ones are finite in quantity and their applications.

The universe has potentially many new things that could be better, or just change the way we do things from purely a meterial standpoint. Metals are common right now but what other materials might exist that could completely replace them?

These are things of why we should explore space, and know if it's worth moving away from this home planet.

Plus lets say you're right: wouldn't it be better if the science is behind you and we say "There's no chance of moving off this planet ever because the closest planet which could sustain us doesn't exist" then i think we could make a judement based on information rather than one based on well it costs too much to move off. It only costs too much if it doesn't give some kind of net reward. But you can't know that until you explore what else is out there.

http://htwins.net/scale2/

Zoom all the way out then start zooming in, looks like the start of The Big Bang Theory.

It be launched.

Woo! Good to see some progress in the Space sector.



last edited by Mantis at 08:37:52 23/May/12