I’m such a procrastinator that I finally got around to making a spreadsheet of the shuttle missions when the only piece of info not yet on Wikipedia was the duration of STS-135. (I already had Mercury, Gemini and Apollo done years earlier.)

Sure, the Space Shuttles weren’t perfect and didn’t quite live up to all the early expectations and yet I still think they were one of the very finest things human minds have ever created and human hands have ever built.

The Shuttle program has given us so much – a personal, off the top of my head, top ten list :

1. It has flown more human individuals into orbit than any other craft incl. the likes of John Glenn, Sally Ride (first female astronaut) , Andy Thomas (the first Aussie astronaut who hails from my home town), the first African-American astronaut and along with so many others.

2. The Shuttles launched and then flew several repair and upgrade missions to the Hubble Space observatory. In my view this feat alone made the Shuttle worth it and has given us all, well, just so incredibly much in the way of science and beauty and wonder.

3. The Shuttle launched the Magellan spaceprobe that mapped Venus in unparalled detail in the early 1990′s.

4. The Shuttle launched the Galileo spaceprobe to Jupiter flying past asteroid Gaspra for Humanity’s first close up encounter of an asteroid en route and subsequently orbiting our solar systems largest and nearest gas giant giant planet for years gifting us so much new knowledge and spectacular images of this gargantuan world.

5. The Space Shuttles lifted to orbit and made possible the International Space Station.

6. The Space Shuttles took three of the four NASA Great Observatories into Low Earth Orbit – the Chandra X-ray space observatory and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory as well as the HST mentioned already at #2.

7. The Space Shuttles launched the Ulysses spaceprobe on its long and rewarding if unheralded odyssey to the Solar poles and Jupiter – and back repeatedly.

8. The Space Shuttles gave us so many new – and fixed satellites – and so much more experience with launching them. We rely on any of these satellites today in a variety of ways.

9. The Space Shuttles worked on international diplomacy bringing America and Russia closer together and helped them work co-operatively on such missions as the trips to Russia’s old Mir space station.

10. The Space Shuttle flew the Spacelab facility into orbit on a number of flights – a dedicated space science station within the Shuttles cargo bay.

Some of those moments were mentioned and pointed out on this excellent tribute but I wish a couple more of them had been – would’ve made this awesome tribute even better still. Eg.Sally Ride’s first flight, Magellan and Galileo‘s launches noted in the same style that Ulysseslaunch was pointed out.

The Space Shuttles were also a learning experience – the first spaceplanes ever built, the first reusable spacecraft ever built and I suspect the largest, heaviest and most technologically advanced gliders ever constructed.

IMHON, The Shuttles were the best method we’ve yet had of sending people and cargo into the Black and will likely hold that record for a long time to come.

Statistically, surely they’d have to be the most successful craft ever with them flying so many missions, doing so much science and transporting so many people into the skies.

I suspect we’ll only really appreciate how good the Space Shuttles were now they’ve gone.

*****

For all the words and statistics, click on my name for perhaps the best reason to love the Space Shuttles I’ve ever seen. Launch of Atlantis on the STS-129 mission.

The Enterprise orbiter was a test model that never made it into space – despite thoughts of upgrading it to be able to do so at a couple of points.

The wikipage for it is here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Enterprise

whilst this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I8DZivcnMM&feature=related

3 part youtube series gives an interesting view from that distant age before Shuttle flew on the Enterprise’s maiden flight.

The Enterprise shuttle features nicely here too :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxf5FBvb4GU&feature=related

in another decent youtube clip on it.

http://www.stonekettle.com/2009/07/one-small-step-bittersweet-anniversary.html

Puts things very well indeed and is something I fully agree with and second.

Thankyou – and thank you NASA and the Space Shuttle teams. So many memories, so many successful flights, so much science done and stuff learnt and joy delivered to us all. It was a wonder of the modern world. Now vanished into history.

The ending of an era. A last landing in the pre-dawn darkness. Darkest time is just before the dawn?

Will we see the Space Shuttles like again?

If so, which nation will build and fly it?

The silence after the last few chuffs of the Shuttle APUs was very sad yesterday morning, but at the same time I think it’s very much the right decision. Despite the fantastic success of the ISS and Hubble the Shuttle was not the affordable launch system it was intended to be, and the combination of solid fuel boosters and a huge heat shield area to keep intact make it a relatively risky way to get people into space. Yes capsules with parachutes are nowhere near as cool as a Thunderbirds-style lifting body, but they work. They should have been replaced years ago, but several promising replacement projects were canned, I understand in part because the Shuttle was very lucrative business for the (albeit hard-working and innovative) companies involved – who could blame them?

I fully support NASAs return to focus on science missions and leaving launches to commercial operators. Apart from Hubble (a very significant “apart”) most of the big science in the last decade has come from the unmanned programme – think what else we could find out if we got people out to the same places the rovers and probes went. I’m very excited about the advances SpaceX are making in launch costs ($1000/pound – brilliant!) and the transparent way they’re offering their services to the public (I could get a small 30kg micro-satellite into LEO for the cost of a new car, not sure what it would do, but it would be fun).

Onwards and outwards humanity!

Peaceful applications came later. I can remember the excitement of Sputnik I, Laika the dog, and Yuri Gagarin.

I remember the transatlantic TV pictures via Telstar – visible simultaneously from Andover, Maine and Goonhilly Down in Cornwall for only a few minutes each revolution.

The Apollo Moon landing caused much excitement here but interest soon waned except for Apollo 13 of course.

The Shuttle made space flight interesting but really it ought to be rather boring – and would have been if everything had gone to plan. Who could name the last 10 satellites to be launched and what they are for?

Nice video – it is a pity that Macmillan had to get its wrist slapped today in the High Court for “unlawful conduct”.

Finally (well almost) a quote from Neil DeGrasse Tyson on July 8, the day of the final shuttle launch:

“Many lament the shuttle era’s end. But that’s misplaced sentiment. Lament instead the absence of an era to replace it.”

I cannot agree with him. There are so many exciting things happening.

I got moved to tears, particularly the ones showing the Hubble repair missions. I’ll miss the close-ups of that beautiful telescope. The only live launch I got to see was for the first servicing mission.

That video brought back flashbacks of watching the first launch after Challenger in college with my friends.

I’m ashamed to say that I missed the final landing. I remember watching the first landing in junior high – fortunately it was during science class and our teacher had snagged one of the TV’s and we all watched it.

Just forwarded it around to my school. Will have to show it in Astronomy class next spring.

I remember knowing about the Challenger’s accident after coming back from the local library, watching (sadly on TV) the launch of STS-95, with my country’s first astronaut (Pedro Duque) along with John Glenn, and after watching (now online) the launch and landing of the two last missions, it makes me feel with a sense of “and now… what?”, of stopping in the middle of nowhere without knowing which way to go. I had the dream of watching someone walking on the Moon (or even on Mars) without recurring to old footage (I have books showing such missions to be launched… in the mid-80s). Now I feel that dream farther than ever. Despite all the “bureaucrazy”, mismanagement and terrible mistakes, the Shuttle was an inspiration to everyone. Now it seems we have to begin from scratch again.

Phil, thanks for your blog, and thanks Columbia, Challenger, Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour, and all those who made them fly, for trying to fulfill our dreams, and expanding our knowledge of the universe.

Greetings from Madrid, Spain (my first comment, by the way).

I think props should also go to Charlotte Stoddart who edited the film.

I hope we don’t stop now just because idiot politicians can’t balance the country’s checkbook.