** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

Better than what most school students come up with... not like those Doctor Who monsters designed by Blue Peter viewers ;)

Endeavour's name was chosen by pupils as well, wasn't it?

This is a representation of how Atlantis will be displayed in KSC:

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Looks like they might just do it justice. I hear one of the other venues is planning on having it so you can actually go inside. Would make one hell of a tour... could make it part of the ideal worldwide space trip we were talking about a few pages back - along with Star City, RSC Energia Space Museum and Baikanur... and the Science Museum... and if you have any money left, Woomera :D

*begins plans to spend money i don't have*
 
Facebook page says 2013 unfortunately... there is still a lot to see though, sadly i hear the Rocket Garden is getting a bit overgrown. You still might actually see one of the orbiters, if you're lucky. They seem to be hanging round KSC for a while being adapted (read: mutilated) for life in a museum.
 
Yeh I've been twice before so I've seen a lot of it. Still stoked to see it all again though :) Last 2 times a Shuttle launch was due while I was there and then it got put back to the day after I came home. Wish I'd got to see one :(
 
The launch of the Wideband Global SATCOM 4 (WGS-4) military satellite from Cape Canaveral at 00:38 (GMT) this morning:

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What a great sight. On Friday, Atlantis was moved to VAB for two months storage as part of the decommissioning process.

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When preparations are finally over Atlantis will be moved Kennedy Space Centre’s Visitor Complex next January for permanent display. Discovery is nearing completion and is due to go Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in April and Endeavour will follow later this year for display in Los Angeles.
 
We saw the launch of WGS-4 last week (20th) but now a very good look at it again but this time from preparation at the pad. Turn up the volume and enjoy:

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Soyuz with Progress M-14M/46P rolled out at Baikonur Cosmodrome this morning:

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Launch will be tomorrow at 23:06 GMT.
 
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'On January 27, 1967, Apollo 1's crew--Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II and Roger B. Chaffee--was killed when a fire erupted in their capsule during testing. Apollo 1 was originally designated AS-204 but following the fire, the astronauts' widows requested that the mission be remembered as Apollo 1 and following missions would be numbered subsequent to the flight that never made it into space.'

You can see why people complained about the height of the gusmobile ;)

Also, nobody told me Ron Garan was in the North East today... could have gone to stalk him :p
 
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Having an interesting discussion on Reddit about why we didn't retire one of the Shuttles on orbit. And you know, use Endeavor for the power sharing with the ISS (and the better smell than Discovery), adapt the docking mechanism to fit an MPLM as well, turn off systems you don't need for re-entry and independent flight to save a lot of the power, do it on crew rotations so you can get the Shuttle crew home on Soyuz (various ways of doing that) and why not? A whole other module, with intriguing possibilities to do with the engines and Canadarm for probably less effort than they're taking to neuter the orbiters for display in a museum. Tell me that wouldn't have been the most fitting retirement you could think of.

Seems a shame we're having this discussion now, but like many things in the space industry i suspect simple a failure of imagination :(
 
PermaBanned said:
Having an interesting discussion on Reddit about why we didn't retire one of the Shuttles on orbit. And you know, use Endeavor for the power sharing with the ISS (and the better smell than Discovery), adapt the docking mechanism to fit an MPLM as well, turn off systems you don't need for re-entry and independent flight to save a lot of the power, do it on crew rotations so you can get the Shuttle crew home on Soyuz (various ways of doing that) and why not? A whole other module, with intriguing possibilities to do with the engines and Canadarm for probably less effort than they're taking to neuter the orbiters for display in a museum. Tell me that wouldn't have been the most fitting retirement you could think of.

Seems a shame we're having this discussion now, but like many things in the space industry i suspect simple a failure of imagination :(
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Very good idea,but i guess it was down to some money in the end:(
 
Western Europe at Night:

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With hardware from the Earth-orbiting International Space Station appearing in the near foreground, a night time European panorama reveals city lights from Belgium and the Netherlands at bottom center. the British Isles partially obscured by solar array panels at left, the North Sea at left center, and Scandinavia at right center beneath the end effector of the Space Station Remote Manipulator System or Canadarm2. This image was taken by the station crew on Jan. 22, 2012.
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Another spectacular view flying over the US. This one was taken on 30th January and also has the Aurora Borealis showing over Canada:

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