Above: JFK calls for the United States to go to the moon. Says it will be expensive, but America needs to do things. Words that still matter, even without a space program
- Final countdown: Shuttle did much with little support - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
President John F. Kennedy, explaining why he had set the United States on a mission to land human beings on the moon in less than 10 years, said that it is in our nature to do things “because they are hard.”
After the Apollo moon missions came the space shuttle. It was supposed to make space travel easy. Its flights would be frequent, cheap and safe. Space travel would be placed within reach of more people, for purposes scientific, military, even recreational.
But, despite the best efforts of many brave astronauts, skilled engineers and dedicated workers — not a few of whom contributed their skills from Utah-based businesses and schools — it proved not to be so. ...
... The United States, meanwhile, lacked the leadership and the national vision necessary to come up with the resources to move technologically beyond the shuttle program. That left the nation’s manned space program dependent for more than 30 years on what was always an experimental, and thus dangerous and somewhat rickety, framework.
Not that there were not successes. Space probes that continue to open up views of our universe were launched by the shuttle. And one of the most revelatory of those, the Hubble Space Telescope, was twice rescued by shuttle astronauts performing one of the few functions that robots cannot yet match.
Today, if all goes according to plan [it did], will see the launch of the 135th, and last, shuttle mission. All those who took part in the program, watched it, paid for it, can be proud of what was accomplished with precious little support from presidents or Congress.
Whatever comes after the shuttle should be better thought out and more adequately funded. Those who continue the mission of space exploration deserve no less.
- Clearing the air: Count the cost of fireworks in Utah - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
... The lawmakers who earlier this year eased the state’s restrictions on fireworks are honor bound to be keeping track of fires, injuries and dangerous air days. If all of those stats come out on the high end, then some re-regulation of fireworks would be in order.
Related:
- ATK and the shuttle - Ogden Standard-Examiner Editorial
... There is uncertainty in the Top of Utah with the end of the space shuttle program. Many jobs have gone away as the Obama administration has phased out the space shuttle program. However, ATK is still positioned to be the booster provider of today's rockets. ATK has proven it provides the best booster technology with its five-segment solid launch vehicle. We're confident that the 1,500 employees at ATK today will remain an economic boost to the community and have the opportunity to provide expertise. ...
- Russians win the space race - The Daily Beast
After the shuttle returns to earth in a twelve days’ time, the United States will no longer have a manned space flight program for the first time in five decades. More, for the foreseeable future it will be Russia, the U.S.’s old space rival, which will be the only country in the world regularly putting men and women into space.
- The final shuttle flight to the final frontier - St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial
... Other than the fact that STS-135 is the last shuttle mission (and the fact that Belleville native Sandra Magnus is one of its four crew members), it could be said that there's nothing special about this flight of shuttle Atlantis. On the other hand, that this brick can fly at all is pretty remarkable. And any time you light a fire under four people and 4.5 million pounds of fuel and cargo, it's pretty special. ...
- Final countdown - The Economist
if the commercial space programmes proceed apace, the space shuttle may someday look like the Pony Express—a triumph of work and will over distance and great danger, and an endeavour that helped to undermine itself by proving what was possible.
- The last flight of the shuttle - Portland Oregonian Editorial
... All that money, and the prospect of safe, affordable space travel is still a distant dream, one that NASA is leaving to wealthy space geeks and private entrepreneurs tinkering with their own spacecraft. In fact, the saddest and most disappointing thing about the end of the shuttle is that NASA has nothing else to bring to the launch pad anytime soon. ...
- Sputnik Dreams Lost to Space Shuttle Realities - Jonathan Alter, Bloomberg View
... As the old NASA joke has it: The shuttle was supposed to be cheap and safe, and make space travel so common that it became boring. One out of three ain’t bad. ...
- End of an era - Houston Chronicle Editorial
... Perhaps the most lasting legacy of the shuttle program is not its impressive hardware, which will henceforth reside in museums, but the accomplishments of the brave people who risked all - and sometimes lost - in furthering manned exploration of space.
We are proud to call them Houstonians.
- The Best Tributes to the End of the Space Shuttle Era - The Atlantic Wire
