Certainly - I'm sure it whatever they develop will be based on the vehicle Rutan developed in the X Prize competition. But it's a start.

Anyone else read Popular Science? They had an issue not long ago on efforts being made to reduce the cost of getting payloads into orbit. A couple of the really cool ones were mag-lev launching (similar to the launch of CA Screamin') and a "space elevator", where currently existing ultra-ultra strong micro fibers (constructed at the microscopic level) are lifted into a geosynchronous orbit as a tether to a platform on which shuttle like vehicles can land to get the payload or change crews. I really like that elevator idea, and while I am certainly no mechanical or structural engineer, it seems feasible.

I'm in complete awe and WOW by watching the ULTIMATE Reality TV program--the live broadcasts on NASA-TV. I'm not a fan of so-called reality TV programs, but this is real, it's live and it's broadcasting from cameras simultaneously between Mission Control, Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station. WOW! Live from outerspace! (Luckily, NASA-TV is available on DIRECTV or stream it live on the Web: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html)

This morning, I woke up at 4 a.m. Pacifc Time, turned on NASA-TV and saw Space Shuttle Discovery approach the Station. There was a camera inside the Discovery showing Commander Eileen Collins slowly, carefully and methodically fly Discovery toward the International Space Station. You could even see her hands adjusting the switches/steering mechanism! Then, she paused Discovery at 600 feet below the Station and performed a Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver. This motion flipped the Shuttle end over end at three-quarters of a degree per second. The flip allowed the two Station crewmembers, Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips, about 93 seconds to photograph the underside of Discovery and its heat-resistant tiles in detail. (See photo below)


This was not a movie, CGI simulation or video game, but rather a spectacular testament to the science and engineering of NASA--to see the Discovery slowly flip more than 90 degrees (seemingly in the same spot, so to speak) and keeping the same distance next to the International Space Station--while seeing the Earth rotating down below! What a magnificent sight!

Then, you got the rare opportunity to see the Discovery dock with the International Space Station, and hear live communication between Mission Control, Discovery and the Station for about an hour in making safety checks, securing the locking mechanisms, and pressurizing the Docking Compartment (See its diagram below) before opening the hatches to see the Discovery crew enter the International Space Station. How cool is that?!

The Docking Compartment has two primary functions. It serves as a docking port for the docking of transport and cargo vehicles (such as a Space Shuttle) to the Space Station, and as an airlock for the performance of spacewalks by Station crewmembers using spacesuits.

As the Discovery crew is entering and being welcomed by the International Space Station's two Expedition 11 crew, the Station crew are also photographing all of this. OMG! I wish I could be a photographer in space! ...or to live and work in space, as these incredible people are doing!



Expedition 11 Welcomes Shuttle Crew Aboard Station - July 28, 2005
For the first time since December 2002, a Space Shuttle is docked with the International Space Station. The two spacecraft linked up at 7:18 a.m. EDT today as they flew over the southern Pacific Ocean west of Chile.

Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer John Phillips welcomed the visiting Shuttle astronauts onto the Station just after the hatches opened at 8:50 a.m. EDT. The two crews are slated to begin eight days of joint operations after the initial greetings and a safety briefing. Their work today will include preparations for possible additional inspections of the Shuttle’s heat shield and the three STS-114 spacewalks.

The two crews will also begin transferring cargo from the Shuttle to the Station. Discovery is delivering supplies and equipment to the Station, most of which is located in the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. Raffaello, a reusable cargo container, is scheduled to be lifted out of the Shuttle's payload bay and attached to the Station’s Unity Module on Friday.

it was a contest, for lack of a better word, and they received a nice check for making it into space and back twice. Although the first trip was a bit rocky....I hope somthing comes of this....as for experiments in space...whats the point?

Various elements act and react differently in the "weightlessness" of space (you aren't really weightless, but falling around the curvature of the earth), so there are opportunities for development of medicines, etc, that can't be done on earth.

You can see a video clip of the "back flip" (or Pitch Maneuver) performed by Space Shuttle Discovery on July 28 at this link:
http://wm.nasa-global.speedera.net/w...F/backflip.wmv

This video clip (you need Windows Media Player on your computer) is sped-up 5X, but it's still incredible to see this maneuver!

and have they actually developed any or is this all theory and guessing??

Ever use velcro? Own a GPS device? Drank Tang? Do you have smoke detectors in your home or office? Do you own a cell phone?

Do you watch the weather? Can't have accurate weather predictions without space...nor would the ability to watch the weather in the first place exist, since all networks use space to transmit their programming.

How about flown in a plane or bought a car in the past 20 years? The composites used in those wouldn't exist without space exploration.

All of these developments would not be with us today without the space program, and some would not be here without the space shuttle. Not to mention the countless experiments done on life (spiders, ants, birds, humans...their bodies all react differently in space). And only more inventions can come from this.


The shuttle is the most complex machine ever built on this planet. We should use it, and we should strive to make it better. And, when the time comes, we should replace it. But we should never give up.

Innumerable daily use technology has come from both the military and space programs. The research should never end, nor should the effort.

Well said, Disneyfan.

as for my response it had to do with what I quoted. the developement of medicines. I realize other stuff has been done...and tang is gross by the way....but all the above could have been done without a space shuttle program. We can launch sattelites into space without a shuttle. Most of the experiments they carry out are just silly....great it works in space, we live with gravity. However, i do think they should continue with the space station and create a new type of shuttle. As you have mentioned in the last 28 years we ave made advances in car designs and aircraft, but we still use the same aging shuttle....we need to move forward.

You know, all of the above could have been done without the shuttle program or the space program, but necessity is the mother of invention. Usually, new technology comes out of trying to meet a particular need rather than a brilliant idea off the top of an inventors head.

So many things that are a part of daily life have come from the things created to meet specific needs of the space program that it would be a shame to stop that process.