Obama attending LAST SHUTTLE take off...celebration or sad day since Obama caused NASA job losses!

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by v2four

thats true...the shuttles do take off from kennedy....ive seen a couple of shuttle launches myself in florida...however, every astronaut who has flown any mission has lived, worked and trained here in the Houston area, and down in Clear Lake, there is a strong contingent of former astronauts who still call this place home long after they are retired.

One can only suppose that makes it all better?

[v2four]

no launch today...auxilary power unit not working...possibly no launch until sunday at the earliest

[Dane_in_LA]

- but please, get your facts straight.

Originally Posted by bentlebee

Obama and his wife will attend this special last shuttle take off...

Not the last Shuttle take-off - it's Endeavour's last flight. Which you would have known if you'd actually given a hoot about manned space flight.

Obama is the one who ended all future shuttle take offs...

No. The Shuttles were designed in the 1970s and are pretty much worn out by now. They've been done in by their own age. Which you would have known if you'd actually given a hoot about manned space flight.

and due to this hundreds of job are lost. Many people over 50 years old will not be able to find a new job since they were doing very specialized work which nowhere is needed.

I thought you had issues with government spending on people with unneeded skills?

Originally Posted by workingclasshero

obama is the one who scraped the Constellation program to build the Orion spacecraft and Ares rockets (the shuttle replacement)

Obama Budget Scraps NASA Moon Plan for '21st Century Space Program' | Space.com

Following the recommendations of the Augustine Commission, and a good decision, too. (Actually, the capsule - Orion - was kept going.)

The Constellation program in general and Ares I in particular embodied everything that can go wrong in government programs, particularly those where contractors and those awarding contracts are just a little too comfortable in each others' company.

While the Ares-I team burned through billions of dollars fitting together a Frankenrocket of 1960s and 1970s components from suppliers carefully selected for their presence in powerful Senators' states, SpaceX developed their own Falcon 9 for less than 1/2 billion.

The difference: Falcon 9 exists. And works. It has put two payloads into orbit. Ares-I so far produced the dog-and-pony show called Ares-Ix, an off the shelf Shuttle SRB dolled up to look like a multi-stage rocket and launched (suborbitally) amid much ballyhoo.

[bentlebee]

SHUTTLE cancelled for today...so Obama can go play golf!

[lifelongMOgal]

Originally Posted by v2four

no launch today...auxilary power unit not working...possibly no launch until sunday at the earliest

Whew! Obama has time to get in another round of golf!

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by bentlebee

SHUTTLE cancelled for today...so Obama can go play golf!

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

Whew! Obama has time to get in another round of golf!

I'm sure your towering intellects have informed you already that the POTUS is in Alabama, right?

[DRob4JC]

Originally Posted by OrlFlaUsa

Let them bet bitter, Houston has always had a "problem" with the fact that we build and launch the orbiter. Yeah, they can stand out side JSC and watch a building that communicates with the crew, but we get to see them from our own backyards as they break the bonds of this earth and defy gravity (cue the song from Wicked).

It's a little more than that.

The crews live here. They train here with the multitude of training centers. Obviously we have the communication centers. Don't sell us short in making your point. We are just on edge these days because of the choice of the final shuttle resting places.