May 2008 Weddings
Always Painted,Usually Chipped
Disclaimer - This is not a nail polish blog.
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Space Shuttle Launch - What's Next?
I'm confused about the whole last space shuttle launch thing. Why is it the last? Are we not still going to be sending people to space?
Always Painted,Usually Chipped
Disclaimer - This is not a nail polish blog.
Re: Space Shuttle Launch - What's Next?
I've been wondering the same thing.
Is it the last for the shuttle - meaning this type of space craft or the end of sending people up all together (until further notice)?
Hi my name is Andrea and my husband works on the space shuttle (or at least will until July 22nd).
The space shuttle is retiring for several reasons:it's old (to find replacement parts engineers often have to search ebay, no joke), it's expensive (a TON of people work on the shuttle. Each orbiter is different - Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, Endeavour, & Atlantis - and has its own "personality" and therefore a team committed to working on just that orbiter, there is a separate team that words on the tank (orange bit) and another that works on the SRBs (little white things on the side)), it's not a great design (it's essentially an airplane mounted to the side of a rocket. Airplanes are not designed to flight vertically so launches create a lot of wear and tear on the shuttle, tiles get damaged, etc), and the space station is complete (one of the reasons we started launching the shuttle). The biggest reason though is Columbia. It took two and a half years to launch again and there were a ton of unanswered questions even when we finally returned to flight basically it could happen again and it's just too big of a risk to keep the bird flying indefinitely.
There were plans to retire the shuttle eventually anyway (since the orbiters are reusable they couldn't fly forever - just like airplanes have to retire so everyone always knew in the back of their minds that it would happen), but there is no "race to space" motivation and no "next step" (do we go back to the moon, just to do something or mars or. . . .?) and for aerospace workers it really feels like no one cares about space exploration anymore and government funding seems to reflect that. That being said we will still have astronauts and they will still fly (only on Russian manned vehicles - not nearly the smooth ride the shuttle has.) There is an upcoming replacement, but do to poor planning and funding there will be a large gap between programs which is resulting in obscene amounts of people being laid off.
There will still be launches from the space coast only they will all be unmanned for the next few years. . .
Wow sorry about writing the novel, clearly there is no short answer.
Ponder-ing whether or not to become a Viking's fan
Wow! Thanks for the info!
What is your husband planning on doing are his job is complete? I'm sure this is a stressful and bittersweet time for him.
Oh, that's interesting. Thanks for filling me in. That was a better explanation than anything I saw on Google.
I was thinking that we were still gung-ho space. Didn't they just advertise a space trip you could buy or something? How very strange!
On a side note, I'd love to go to space.
On another side note, are you a May 2008 bride, Andrea? If so, glad to have you!!
I am a May '08 bride and used to post back in the engagement days. I have since fallen to lurker/afraid to post since nobody remembers me anymore.
I think the most frustrating thing has been NASA's refusal to acknowledge the layoffs. They just posted this week that "even with the space shuttle retirement no employees would be laid off" contract employees raised hell (since they do all the work and are all getting laid off) and NASA edited their statement to say "no NASA employees would be laid off" nice. Anyone have a job opening for a aerospace engineer?! *sigh*
Ponder-ing whether or not to become a Viking's fan
great explanation. it's kinda of sad that our kids won't grow up with the same interest/education/enthusiasm for space exploration that was available when we were kids. i remember visiting museums and eating space food.
come by and visit anytime Andrea! waht was your knot/nest name?
Andrea! So good to see you around these parts. I didn't realize A worked for NASA. Awesome! Where, in your opinion, would be the best place to watch the July launch from? We usually just pull over off 528, but would like to try to get closer. We may try Jetty Park, but not sure if it will be open.
Hi Suzanne! Hmm they predict traffic is going to be crazy for the last launch so I'm dreading the drive in.
I asked A and this is what he said:
Orlando
Best View? Buy a launch view ticket from the KSC visitors center?but those are probably sold out
Other than that?it?s going to be a mad house?you could camp out at KARS Park and watch from there the next day?.
Ponder-ing whether or not to become a Viking's fan