h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thoughts and prayers with the Shuttle crew today as the Atlantis prepares to land, around lunchtime BST. This is the last outing for this particular shuttle, but there'll be two more shuttle missions this year. More in my BATS on Monday

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10148781.stm

How will they service the ISS in the future, GB?

rent space(ha!) from the Russians.
Plus there's several delivery vehicles in the pipeline, both manned and unmanned.

But initially, NASA is going to have to rely on the Russians, and that must hurt just a little bit!

If only we could have back all that capital we wasted on the Cold War and apply it to the space program...

wasted and still waste...

OTOH if only Maggie have greenlighted () the HOTOL programme then the UK would have cornered space delivery and the shuttle would have been retired long ago.

Oh, come on, when has the government let British ideas that could put us at the forefront of.. well, at the forefront... get greenlighted?
Technology? Ooh, that sounds complicated. Let's just buy something American instead...

If only we'd continued the British space programme instead of scrapping it for Concorde...

"Let's just buy something American instead..."
Or flog our better ideas to the US where they can mothball them and ignore them.

Which reminds me - if anyone's feeling nostalgic, an engine from the TSR-2 project is for sale on Ebay at the moment - Rolls Royce Olympus prototype, serial number 1. Yours for a cool £2,000,000...

if only I had that sort of money...
Maybe I should apply to the lottery for a grant, or something.

all's well

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10163351.stm

and on the subject of the future of orbital transports:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/05/26/space-x-plans-to-launch-the-falcon-9-this-week/

Although launch is looking like 2/3rd June now.

Atlantis may get another outing; they're talking about using it as a backup "rescue" vehicle during the last shuttle flight, and may also keep it operational a little longer, in case they don't finish lifting the scheduled bigger items to ISS.

I'm going on a tour of the SpaceX facility on June 18 ; I'll report on it in my journal after, if anyone's interested.

I've always been dismayed that the shuttle program hasn't followed usual aviation procedure -- mainly, that you have the next generation vehicle on the drawing boards by the time you finish the tests on the current one. NASA *sort of* proceeded to replacement vehicles -- but they blew over $200 billion on the X-33, which was designed ass-backwards, and was scrapped. That, after being miserly, with $62 million for a test of concept vehicle called the Delta X-1, "Delta Clipper", a single stage to orbit vehicle which *worked*, and even came in $2 million under budget, before the program ended.

Looks like the UK has a new space agency. I choose to see this as a starting point - or a re-starting point, if you will.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/thesword/2010/03/wheres-the-science-in-the-uks.html

keep an eye on

http://www.spacex.com/webcast.php

it is the live webcast for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket today.
Time will be 14:40 UTC / 15:40 BST (adjust for whatever your local time is)

streaming started, but a 45min hold, unspecified reasons.
So if you want to look at a live streaming image of a space rocker on a launch pad not doing much but venting coolant, nows your chance

Dear space cadette, I would love to hear about your visit to the project.

I sadly cannot remember if it was Deke or Icy North or my friend in NASA who always used to give ne tips about where to look in the sky for any of the space capsules which were passing past my flat in Folkestone Kent UK. I was tickled pink to see several when I lived in Cape Town South Africa - or rather Somerset West, South Africa. I used to see them frequently before they landed, literally 20 minutes later at Cape Canaveral.

Thank goodness I can still remember the excitement I felt when my late husband and I watched the wonderful sight all those years ago.
With many good wishes

Christiane
AlsoRan 80
Friday 4th June 2010 21.05 BST

Chrisitiane, I'll bet you had an excellent view! The skies are rather more smoggy and light polluted here than I think SA would have been.

I've found out that I won't be able to take any pictures at the SpaceX tour, but still, I'll be writing about it. Nice flight the other day...now let's try some manned rockets, ok?

BTW, does anyone here have the iPhone NASA app? I just got it today, and was happy to note that it's free, and features not only Astronomy Picture of the Day, but news about the various missions, with some video thrown in. So far, I like!

Dear Space Cadette.

Thank you so much for replying. I would love to know where and when to look for the space missiles. As I said, I think it was either icy North or Deke who used to be my "official" ISS advisors on lift off off from CAPE CANAVAREL.

I remember watching that capsule so well. Then listening with my late husband Dick, who was a fundi on the radio and had an excellent portable, to the announcement of it's safe landing.

I believe that I also watched one of the original ones flying at night over Salisbury, S. Rhodesia now Zimbabwe, Harare.

However that was in the late 60's

Go well


Christiane
AlsoRan80

Thursday 10th June, 2010