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Shuttle News

Interest in Shuttle Grows After It Has Been Retired. Hidden Message?

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
April 18, 2012
Filed under , ,

Image: Jarod Ondas (left), of Virginia, and his brother Austin, watch as space shuttle Discovery approaches the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center for its fly-over, Tuesday, April 17, 2012, in Chantilly, Va.nasa hq photo’s photostream
Space Shuttle Discovery Draws Eyes to Sky for Final Flight, PBS NewsHour
[Valerie Neal NASM] “I think it’s probably a surprise to everyone how the public turned out today with such enthusiasm. And it’s quite clear that Americans are still very much interested in human spaceflight and very proud of their space shuttle.”
Shuttle Discovery flyover dazzles D.C. area, Washington Times
“When are you ever going to see something like that again?” asked Daniel Pallotta, a Boston resident who drove down with his son to watch the shuttle landing. “You’re not. This was awe-inspiring.”
NASA’s Discovery shuttle wows Washington in 45-minute flyover, Washington Post
“At the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly — Discovery’s new home — 8-year-old Alex Corica wandered the parking lot wearing an orange shuttle flight suit and a helmet too large to fit his head. He was ready not just to witness, but to fly.”
Tweet from Shelby Spires to Alan Boyle: “It amazes me how many people become interested in America’s space shuttle program after it over.”
Keith’s note: If you want an idea what the flyby was like as a few hundred people and I parked illegally and stood on the side of the road outside of Dulles International Airport, go to this video and advance to 2:35 and play. Yea, just like that. For a few seconds our entire field of view was nearly taken up by Discovery and its 747 carrier.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

23 responses to “Interest in Shuttle Grows After It Has Been Retired. Hidden Message?”

  1. Anonymous says:
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    Tweet from Shelby Spires to Alan Boyle: “It amazes me how many people become interested in America’s space shuttle program after it over.”

    That interest has always been there guys.  It has been a quiet interest, almost as if it is deeply embedded in our national psyche.  Seeing Discovery flying one last time has brought out that interest in a measurable fashion.  When I went to the landing of STS-2 in 1981 over half a million people were there just to watch.

    Without human spaceflight, something is missing from the American experience and probably more than anything else, this shows the retreat of a once great nation from its greatness.  

    We blow a trillion dollars on stimulus with virtually nothing to show for it, and could not come up with the pennies required to keep the shuttle flying until a replacement was had or to design or build a system in a timely fashion that would be a proud successor.

    We are also without any real plans for the future nor is NASA articulating what that future means for the good of our nation and the world.

    Shame on us all, shame on us all.

    • cynical_space says:
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       Amen Dennis.  Speaking as someone whose interest in space was not inspired by Star Trek or any other SF, but by the real, televised space program, It’s easy to see why people think there is no interest. The last 30 years of going in circles in LEO was hardly inspiring.

      Yet, the interest is there.  Yes, even with the younger generation.  When I was working the Orion (then called CEV) proposal, we had a flood of resumes from college kids wanting to work it. So you can’t tell me there is no interest in space by the younger generation. All that is really lacking is a bold, robust space program that is out there pushing on the boundaries of space. If that was the case, the “outreach” to the younger set would take care of itself.

      • Paul451 says:
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        Out of curiosity, what would you estimate was the average age of the other engineers working alongside you on the CEV?

        • cynical_space says:
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           We had a full spectrum of ages, from a couple of years out of college to retired program managers brought back as consultants.  Probably the same average as any of the big aerospace companies, but maybe a little older due to the aforementioned “graybeards”.

    • James Lundblad says:
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      A group of us from UCLA slept in a van at Edwards for the STS-1 landing, it was life changing, Crippen’s comment about arriving in California over the PA is forever burned into my brain. We had a tour of Downey at some point too. My daughter and I saw Endeavor in the VAB for the MSL launch, but I hope we can see her closer when she’s back in California.

  2. newpapyrus says:
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    “We are also without any real plans for the future nor is NASA
    articulating what that future means for the good of our nation and the
    world.”

    You could say the same for the entire country! In the 1950s and 1960s, we seemed to have a strong belief in the future and in a better tomorrow. And almost anything seemed possible!   But in this extremely cynical and selfish country that we live in today, even what we could do in the past seems almost impossible!

    Marcel F. Williams

  3. Monroe2020 says:
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    I’m far from working in the engineering fields of anything related to NASA.  However, it amazes me how many people do not care about flying Americans into space.  Most people shrug their shoulders and mumble something along the lines “we don’t need to be up there, more important things here on earth to do.”

    • markr01000 says:
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      Exactly. This is the ugly fact none of us working for NASA want to admit.
      We’ve lost the support of the general public’s tax dollars.
      Oh sure, they’ll all Oo and Ah watching the shuttle fly over the Mall or Manhattan, but ask them to put their tax dollars toward a future space exploration program, and they aren’t interested.

  4. Andrew_M_Swallow says:
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    The transfer of the Shuttle was shown on British TV.  There are still people dreaming about spaceflight.

  5. James Lundblad says:
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    I think we will build new shuttles some day, ala the dreamchaser and X37B, all new technology, cheaper, safer, smarter, LAS, etc..

    • Anonymous says:
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      I had an interesting conversation about the X-37 recently with a NASA official.  I think that there is more to that bird than anyone knows.  

  6. majormajor42 says:
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    I really think it is the internet. It really helped get the word out. The media picked up on it being something people cared about and got the word out more. It is too bad that social media and other things only evolved in the last few years of STS. For most of the program I was qwerty the whim of mass media to report on the space program that I cared about. Now I have websites like these and twitter to keep me extremely informed.

    Without the internet I think the media never really picks up on the potential interest of this story and Discovery flies into DC to the glee of a few diehards.

  7. A_J_Cook says:
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    I agree with Dennis Wingo-I live in the Los Angeles area and was a spectator to the first ALT drop-test and many of the early shuttle landings. Long before the shuttle program ended, however, there was no way for the public to get legal close access to landings at Edwards AFB, and many younger people in the LA area knew little about the local connections to the shuttle. I don’t think it was for lack of curiosity, but instead was due to NASA not finding a way to promote direct public interest and participation. I continued to go to landings and SCA take offs from Edwards as a reporter with a hand full of other enthusiasts, but I really felt sad that it was no longer something accessible to the public, especially that there was absolutely no way for even my wife and kids to go. At least at JPL, the annual open houses allow giant crowds get to see robotic probes in construction before they are sent on their interplanetary voyages.

  8. bobhudson54 says:
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    Restoring NASA’s budget to the 1960’s funds would give NASA the appropriate funds to actually do what they are required. Also allowing private industry to be more involved would add to the public’s interest. This action would allow the program to step forward and continue space exploration instead of political pandering that’s occurring now. A real mission can be devised without any political influence and would reinvigorate public interest.

  9. Hey says:
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    Of course people are interested now!  Who wouldn’t want to watch Captain Piccard zap the borg?!?  (Better check your video link!)

  10. Hallie Wright says:
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    Doesn’t seem like any “hidden message” here. People like new things, and witnessing once-only things. That’s what happened over DC. People in DC expressed their “like” of the Shuttle. At least one riding on top of an airplane, as opposed to actually doing stuff in space. It was a pretty cool sight. It would have been a pretty cool sight if it were a taxicab strapped to the top of a 747.

    Where were all these people when Discovery launched? Oh, they didn’t like it THAT much, I guess.

    For all we know, these people may have been celebrating the fact that a hugely inefficient and expensive space vehicle was finally being put out to pasture. They may have been celebrating the fact that human space flight was moving forward, and the retirement of a 28 year old vehicle symbolized that.

    I’m not belittling the importance of human space flight to the national psyche. I’m just suggesting that this event didn’t really teach us anything about that national psyche.

    • Michael Rilee says:
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      No, we were witnessing history and honoring the sacrifices that were made.  We do it whenever a ship comes home.

      • Hallie Wright says:
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        Witnessing history? Yes, that’s what I said. Honoring sacrifices? Maybe, but that sounds like a stretch. Probably honoring accomplishments is a better way of putting it. But there’s no hidden message here. The public response was entirely predictable.

        • npng says:
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          You’re right Hallie, the Shuttle effort was certainly hugely inefficient and expensive and at 28 years old was a dinosaur of technology that should be put down. 
          I hope you’re not that old! 

          I have some of Thomas Edison’s original lightbulbs.  They are primitive, clunky, rather inefficient and were certainly expensive at the time.  From what you mentioned here, they needed to be put to pasture too, so I tossed them in the trash compactor.

  11. Joe Cooper says:
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    Maybe these days people like history more than the future.