Two Shuttles Might Stick Around Through 2017!

Found this little bit of news on the nsmbc.mns.com website.

NASA is consider keeping shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis in flight-ready condition after Endeavour's last scheduled mission instead of turning it into a museum piece. Endeavour was the replacement shuttle for the space shuttle Challenger that was lost in a lift-off explosion 25 years ago this year.

Thanks to the proposal from Commercial Space Transportation Service, or CSTS. They would use Endeavour as well as a sister shuttle, Atlantis, to fly two missions a year from 2013 to 2017 at an annual cost of $1.5 billion.

The contractor that currently manages the shuttle program on NASA’s behalf, United Space Alliance; has offered this proposal for the second round of funding from the space agency’s Commercial Crew Development initiative, also known as CCDev 2. United Space Alliance is the only company that proposes keeping the shuttles operational.

Other companies like Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp, SpaceX, etc. plan on their own replacement vehicles to the shuttle. SpaceX has just successfully flown their Dragon capsule that they propose to make it human-rated.

For more information, check out the link below.

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Ref.

1. msnbc.msn.com. "NASA weighs plan to keep space shuttle until 2017" by Rob Coppinger. February 3, 2011. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41397955/ns/technology_and_science-space/).

2. Picture of a space shuttle on launch pad.

Challenger Disaster 25 years Ago Today

I was driving to work that morning with the radio on and heard a news report that the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch that morning. Later, I was able to see the video. I was sad for the families, but more so for the American spirit.

Then there was the President - Ronald W. Reagan whos speech tried to make things right again. We would later discover the reasons why the Challenger Disaster took place and tried to correct those mistakes.

On Michelle Malkin's website today, she ran President Reagan's video of his speech. She also posted the transcript of that speech.

Also included in that post is the most beautiful poem (my opionion) I have ever heard in my life... High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. I'm going to copy and paste that poem here into this post. But please use the link info below to go to her site to read President Reagan's speech. Searching on YouTube, I have randomly selected a link to view the explosion and here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaKSrOpLJPo .

High Flight — John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —

And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

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REf. Michelle Malkin. "The Challenger Disaster: 73 seconds, 25 years" by Michelle Malkin. January 28, 2011. (http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/28/the-challenger-disaster-73-seconds-25-years/).