by ORPO1 | September 20, 2012 · 7:29 pm

Enjoy, Ladies and Gentlemen. Took these this afternoon. Historic day of sorts but so sad......................Click to make Big!

Filed under Uncategorized

5 Responses to Shuttle Endeavour at Edwards AFB today

Bill Brandt

September 20, 2012 at 11:13 pm

Incredible to me that after over 50 years we have no means of putting a man into space. I guess our hopes are with private ventures, Elon Musk’s SpaceX at the top. There was an interesting article in Air And Space magazine on SpaceX, and the economics of developing your own systems vs buying tried-and-true systems “off the shelf”. Musk is finding it far more economical to develop – or in many cases – redevelop – systems himself.

And he decided not to patent them, becease if he did “The Chinese would just copy it” Smart move, IMO (whatever that’s worth )

http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Visionary-Launchers-Employees.html

On returning to the moon, Neal Armstrong was frustrated at the current state of NASA.

In 2010, Armstrong wrote to NPR’s science correspondent, Robert Krulwich, and spoke of the need for humans to return to the moon. “Some question why Americans should return to the moon. After all,’ they say, ‘we have already been there.’ I find that mystifying. It would be as if 16th-century monarchs proclaimed that ‘we need not go to the New World, we have already been there.’ Or as if President Thomas Jefferson announced in 1803 that Americans ‘need not go west of the Mississippi, the Lewis and Clark expedition has already been there.’ Americans have visited and examined six locations on Luna, varying in size from a suburban lot to a small township. That leaves more than 14m square miles yet to explore.”

Reply
- tgmccoy
  
  September 21, 2012 at 7:01 pm
  
  Big fan of Space X. Heinlein would be proud…
- ORPO1
  
  September 21, 2012 at 8:17 pm
  
  Things are changing but sometimes not for the better. I think things are now going to be judged on cost effectiveness.
Hogday

September 21, 2012 at 1:41 pm

Just watched this on BBC News but its even better to have a Lexican pal take and post personal pictures, thanks ORPO1.
I can’t believe that the greatest explorers of the Cosmos aren’t ‘going there boldly’ any more. So glad I lived, and watched, through the times I did, when human aviators were at the controls.

Reply
- ORPO1
  
  September 21, 2012 at 8:18 pm
  
  Thanks Hogday.
  Glad you enjoyed them.
  The rare and amazing perk of being a crew chief on the line at Edwards.