Mir was deorbited in 2001, not 2009

Space conquest is what kids dream about and what NASA has tried to do for half a century and more. Nonetheless, the economic reality seems to have kicked in and maybe it is for the better that the space shuttle program has been terminated. On a final note, I do have the feeling that the program is not really dead but more like put to sleep for an indeterminate period of time.

John Wayne Schulz

All the great recent discoveries about our universe were made by robots in space and men and women on the ground. All respect to Neil Armstrong, but he couldn't detect black holes in distant galaxies. The Hubble Space telescope can. John Glenn wouldn't have lasted five years on Mars. The Mars Rovers did. And who wants to take a 15-year one-way trip to Pluto? Nobody sane, that's for sure!

Manned space flight may appeal to our sense of vanity, but it's usually the most inefficient way to gather information. Robots, frankly, are awesome. Long may they live!

I would probably be worried if we were continuing the Shuttle Program, and I'm sure there would be a writer to warn us of how we have lost are way and simply doing the same things over and over again if in fact the Shuttle Program was continuing and our plans were simply to return to the Moon. There is always some "cleaver" person to point out the errors of our ways as a nation whilst not offering any hope that change might actually be a good thing. I happen to believe that this is a good move and see no reason to continue the expensive program of delivering astronauts to low orbit. We had people in low orbit in the 1960's, and the International Space Station certainly elicits images of Star Trek or whatever but rather than fantastic visions of the future I am more interested in what we're actually learning about our solar system and the universe. So things like the Hubble Space Telescope fascinate me or things like the Voyager Probes fascinate me. The notion of landing a person on an asteroid seem much more interesting than going back to the Moon. What people fail to understand is that the Shuttle program is being scrapped not because we're broke, because the NASA budget actually increased about 2 billion dollars YOY, this program was scrapped so that the private sector could help develop cheaper manned flight and so that NASA could focus on adventures that would actually tell us something new about space and the universe. So I am not fretting this but hoping that it leads to a new kind of race for knowledge rather than glory.

i'm sad to see the shuttles decommissioned, i grew up watching in awe on TV as these vessels took off, and it feels like a little part of my childhood is dying. thank you NASA for all the memories, and to the brave men and women who inspired a love of science in me!

It was too expensive to operate, was based on ancient 1970s technology, and wasn't really accomplishing all that much. The main problem is that its not clear that all that much is replacing it.

The US has many choices. For example, we can spend trillions on futile wars in the Middle East or we could easily fund scientific missions in space, such as the James Webb Space Telescope. Unfortunately for most us, our politicians have chosen the former and not the latter.

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I believe that Russia have all the goods to success and be a leader in the space explore.
But after NASA death(space were about 60% of the activities), I think that ESA(the European "NASA"), must spend money to training people in order to have a ready team to explore the space and continue the good job of USA.
Russia and Europe, if the relationship is good, can continue to show us very nice pictures and explore Mars!

Alex from satellite direct

I believe that Russia have all the goods to success and be a leader in the space explore.
But after NASA death(space were about 60% of the activities), I think that ESA(the European "NASA"), must spend money to training people in order to have a ready team to explore the space and continue the good job of USA.
Russia and Europe, if the relationship is good, can continue to show us very nice pictures and explore Mars!

Alex from satellite direct

Why not let other nations focus on that? I've said a million times we're too tied to the idea of sending astronauts on fantastic adventures when two robots on Mars have accomplished more than we dreamed possible for them (and certainly more than a human could have done). Besides which, Brazil, Iran, China and India aren't doing anything we didn't decades ago.

I just don't see the need for a country like Idia to be spending over 70 million on a space program when it simply can't afford to be spensing that kind of money on such a thing, I just can't see why some countries can't get their priorities right, crazy.

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I'm getting IndigestionSymptoms just thinking about what this could do to our country! Not only are we dependent on the Middle East for the majority of our fuel and on Mexico for our cheap labor, but now we're farming out our very access to outer space, something we've led the world in for 40 years!

China's already breathing down our backs with everything else in the economy...why wouldn't we just find a way to monetize the shuttle like China & Russia have done? $43.4M per astronaut?? I let people ride in my car for free!!

The move the US Space Program from the Federal Government to private industry and other countries is an inevitable progression.

History has shown us many such shifts over time. For example, in the United States, a dramatic shift occurred away from defined benefit pension plans and towards defined contribution 401kplans. Economic concerns drove this shift for corporate retirement plans and it seems that government is only now recognizing fiscal responsibility as well.

JOHNWAYNESCHULZ may have said it best in his previous comment "the economic reality seems to have kicked in and maybe it is for the better that the space shuttle program has been terminated." Sad but necessary

Recent (unplublished) News: Shuttle Hijacked, Bound for the Moon

The entire Endeavour shuttle landing was a fake! All done with Photoshop and computer animation.

What is NASA hiding?

This: The Endeavour was hijacked. The incident took place while the shuttle was parked at the ISS where two disgruntled ex-NASA employees had stowed aboard the craft and waited for the right moment to commandeer it (to make a point about President Obama's space policies).

The story is covered at the whimsical Thinking Out Loud, http://marperl.blogspot.com/2011/05/shuttle-hijacked-destination-moon.html

The interesting thing here for me is to see just how important the whole Space thing is to the American psyche. It was an amazing achievement which illustrated just how much more advanced the US was in terms of technology than the rest of the world. The rest of the world just watched events unfold on TV in shocked awe.

However on a cost benefit analysis could all that expenditure really be justified though? What if all that money had been spent on say medical technology?

As a Detroit Lions fan I have decades of experience at living on past glories while watching others celebrate their victories. It's the vicious jeering which eventually gives way to pity that I dread. Yes, NASA is about to become the Detroit Lions of space programs. So sad.

History has shown us many such shifts over time. For example, in the United States, a dramatic shift occurred away from defined benefit pension plans and towards defined contribution 401kplans. Tavares Economic concerns drove this shift for corporate retirement plans and it seems that government is only now recognizing fiscal responsibility as well.

The end of the space shuttle program is a big step back for the United States, and a giant leap forward for everyone else. Recent (unplublished) News: Shuttle Hijacked, Bound for the Moon The entire Endeavour shuttle landing was a fake! All done with Photoshop and computer animation. What is NASA hiding? This: The Endeavour was hijacked. The incident took place while the shuttle was parked at the ISS where two disgruntled ex-NASA employees had stowed aboard the craft and waited for the right moment to commandeer it (t dnn All the great recent discoveries about our universe were made by robots in space and men and women on the ground. All respect to Neil Armstrong, but he couldn't detect black holes in distant galaxies. The Hubble Space telescope can. John Glenn wouldn't have lasted five years on Mars. The Mars Rovers did. And who wants to take a 15-year one-way trip to Pluto? Nobody sane, that's for sure! Manned sp.

It is a pity that the USA closed the shuttle programme. There are no specialised businesses on the market that can replace this. The Russians are the only one witch can step in. I hope it is simply a matter of time before US industry can develop an alternative to the space ship programme.