Neil Armstrong said that Apollo 11 ended the Cold War, which was won by America. SpaceX is building its own rockets, while not only Orbital Science Corp. but also Boeing and Lockheed-Martin are using Russian engines.
Tullio

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The russians must be laughing all the way to the bank. The USA decides to terminate the shuttle program before a replacement is ready to fly, so we hitch rides on russian capsules at great expense and then, one of the "private" companies in an attempt to take a shortcut buys old unused russian rocket motors from a failed program.

The U.S. government probably required them to use Russian rocket motors to remind everyone that it was a good thing that we won the Cold War. A little repetition is helpful for learning.

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And now America,Russia, Europe and Japan are cooperating on the ISS, Ukraine notwithstanding. Only China is going alone but the fate of the Jade Rabbit on the Moon may have taught them a lesson. America and Russia have spent human lives in the space race. I wish China to avoid this loss, caused by hubris.
Tullio

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China did outstandingly well on their first attempt at a moon landing. And fortunately the Italians were not always so risk-averse, or the Americas might not have been discovered.

As you constantly keep reminding us of history, you got that one wrong. Russia got there first with Sputnik which only spurred the Yanks to do what they did. As for PR, it was a coup for the Russians.

The russians, with sputnik only succeeded in getting an object into orbit which did little more than beep regularly. It did no science. Even the very first US satellites were capable of performing basic scientific experiments. Had the US government not been so cautious and there not been bickering between the various agencies and military over who had authority in those matters America probably would have had a satellite in orbit as early as 1955. Both nations benefitted greatly from the information and hardware seized in Germany during the second half of 1945. The west was lucky that Wernher Von Braun made an active attempt to be captured by US and British forces.

The russians did well with they seized added to their own science and engineering with the exception of miniaturization. Well into the 1970s russian boosters had to be able to boost payloads much heavier but less capable than those from the west. From what I read they had many more launch failures than NASA in the early days.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Samantha Cristoforetti is on the next Soyuz flight to the ISS with an American and a Russian. She is a fighter pilot of the Italian Air Force.
Tullio

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It was all political Bob, the shuttles had another 5 years life in them at least, but the American government couldn't afford to fund NASA for that. They decided it was cheaper to save money by scrapping them and letting private companies like SpaceX have the job, and to hitch rides with the Russians.

NASA has effectively given up on the ISS and the Moon, and is using what little money they do have to look at Mars and asteroids. The time has gone when America ruled space, now the Chinese and Russians have taken over. The only reason that Kennedy wanted to be first on the moon was to score a political point against the Kremlin during the Cold war.

I thought the shuttles were old and pushed far beyond what they were designed for, but apparently they each had a design of 100 flights.

Although flying for two decades, the shuttle still will have more than three-quarters of its design lifetime available. Out of 100 flights designed for each orbiter, when STS-92 — the 100th overall flight for the program — is completed, Discovery will be the most-flown shuttle with 28 flights to its credit. Columbia will be second with 26 flights. Atlantis will have made 22 trips to space and Endeavour will have completed 14 flights.

But on the other hand they had issues continuing to use such old equipment.

Recently, Mr. Renfroe said, his team swept the Internet to find an obsolete circuit board used in testing the shuttle's master timing unit, which keeps the spaceships' computers in sync. None could be found. A promising lead turned false. Finally, a board was found. It cost $500.

"That's very inexpensive," Mr. Renfroe said. "To hire a design engineer for even one week would cost more than that."

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Member of the People Encouraging Niceness In Society club.

The shuttles had wings because US Air Force wanted them. Now they are flying a mini shuttle, X37B.
Tullio

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The shuttles had wings because US Air Force wanted them. Now they are flying a mini shuttle, X37B.
Tullio

Even the X37B has wings, but I now have to ask, how would they land them without damage without those wings? (or are we just having a translation problem here?)

Cheers.

By parachute, as in Apollo.
Tullio

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By parachute, as in Apollo.
Tullio

Dropping a capsule into sea water is 1 thing, but to do that with something that is much more complex and has a rocket engine....

Cheers.

I've heard it said, I don't know how true it is, that the computer system on Apollo 11 that took man to the moon was about the equivalent of a ZX81! Lets hope that future NASA spacecraft are more readily upgradable as the rate of technology advancement is exponential.

After seeing a comparison, it's amazing they achieved what they did...

Comparison

"one NASA engineer said later, had the complexities of the eventual AGC been understood when they began to design it, they likely never would have started, as they would have considered the computer far outside the available technology of the day."

Dropping a capsule into sea water is 1 thing, but to do that with something that is much more complex and has a rocket engine....

Cheers.

NASA has tested a number of Lifting bodies with no wing.Maybe that was a solution. The wings are very subject to damages, as a tragedy has shown.
Tullio

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I just watched a NASA video showing the Orion spacecraft and its descent in the Pacific Ocean by means of three parachutes. The flight test atop a Delta IV heavy launcher is planned on December 4.
Tullio

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